[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]
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Although Harry and his team had already reached a consensus that the three-headed dog was guarding the Philosopher's Stone, this didn't help them much.
The Philosopher's Stone is the highest level of achievement in alchemy, and even Hogwarts' library has very little information about it. At least, Harry and Hermione didn't find any.
Of course, there's another possibility that the relevant information could be in the Restricted Section.
Harry and his friends felt terrible for making a new discovery but not being able to turn it into real progress.
Compared to Harry and the others, there was one person who was very happy: Oliver Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Wood's mouth had been open for quite some time recently, allowing people to clearly see his sixteen teeth, and even his tonsils. It was no wonder, he was extremely pleased with the current performance of the Gryffindor team.
The Hogwarts Quidditch season consists of twelve matches, with each student playing two games against one another. The twelve matches are divided into three phases: before the Christmas holidays, before the Easter holidays, and before the end of the semester.
Now, Gryffindor had played two matches before the Christmas break and won both.
Harry caught the Golden Snitch in both games, and Gryffindor won by a large margin. If they managed to maintain this momentum, they would basically secure the Quidditch Cup for the House.
Wood had already analyzed the other three teams, and now it seemed that the chances of victory were very high.
He was particularly pleased to have developed his successor, Ron Weasley.
Wood had lived through the time when Charlie Weasley was the Quidditch team captain, and the team also had two very talented Beaters, the Weasley twins.
Although Percy, who was in the same year as him, wasn't very good at Quidditch, it didn't affect his belief that the Weasley children had Quidditch genes, even though the word "genes" was not often used in the wizarding world.
Ron proved his point even further.
In the match against Hufflepuff, Wood overcame the doubts of Angelina and three other Chasers and let Ron start.
As a result, Ron won over the audience and his teammates with his exceptional performance. So much so that after the upcoming Christmas, in the two consecutive games against Ravenclaw, Angelina and the others felt it was enough to let Ron play.
Wood had argued for this. As captain, he had to fight for qualification to play. Wood seemed both pained and pleased.
The games before Christmas were intense, but with good results, Wood slightly reduced the intensity of his training. This also gave Harry and Ron more time to search for information about the Philosopher's Stone with Hermione.
It was a pity that more than a month had passed, and they still hadn't made any significant progress.
In fact, there were many places that mentioned the Philosopher's Stone, but very few went into detail. The Philosopher's Stone was a category of alchemy, and Hogwarts didn't offer alchemy classes, so there were far fewer books and materials related to it.
The few that had been mentioned primarily referred to the Midas Touch and the Elixir of Life.
Even Harry thought that Snape wouldn't be too obsessed with gold. Although Snape appeared somewhat intimidating as a professor to Harry and his friends, everyone knew he held the title of Potion Master and was the youngest Potion Master in all of Europe.
It was impossible for someone like him to have little money.
As for the Elixir of Life, frankly speaking, wizards tend to live longer. For example, Dumbledore was over a hundred years old but still seemed lively and energetic throughout the day. Harry and his friends often saw Dumbledore appear at the staff table during dinner, a rare sight among the professors, with a large pile of desserts in front of him.
In comparison, Harry and the others found it a bit absurd that Snape, who was only in his thirties, had already started to worry about death.
Unable to figure out the reason, Harry and his team's investigation reached an impasse.
It is worth mentioning that in the second Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, Snape volunteered to be the referee. This left Harry and Ron very concerned for a while. Hermione once suggested that Harry break his leg to avoid the match.
But later they realized they had been worrying too much. Dumbledore also attended the game.
Obviously, with Dumbledore around, Snape didn't dare do anything underhanded, and the game went smoothly.
The lack of action from Snape was the main reason why Harry and his team's investigation reached a deadlock.
…
In the blink of an eye, it was already mid-December.
With the arrival of the first snow, the students were already looking forward to Christmas.
Hogwarts has a half-month Christmas break, and students can choose between returning home or staying at the school.
Hermione and Neville confirmed they would go home for Christmas, while Ron confirmed he would stay at the school, his parents were going to Romania to visit their second son, Charlie.
Harry had heard Charlie's name many times, but most of the time, he was mentioned by Wood, rather than Ron or the twins.
Wood always said, "Wow, Harry, I thought Charlie was a great Seeker, but you're even better than him!"
It is said that Charlie received an invitation to try out for a professional team, but in the end, he chose to study dragons at a dragon training farm in Romania.
Harry had never seen a dragon before and was very interested in them.
He remembered that Hagrid had mentioned more than once that he wanted to have a pet dragon, and he brought it up almost every time Harry visited him. Therefore, he was also the second person most often mentioned by Charlie. Every time it was mentioned that Charlie might live with a group of dragons, Hagrid seemed very envious.
Hermione scoffed at this.
"Dragons are five-star dangerous creatures. A dragon's breath is a magical fire that can easily injure a wizard. Many dragons have poisonous teeth and claws. Even without considering the dragon's enormous size, it is still a very terrifying creature."
Hermione would say this every time Ron showed interest in dragons.
Harry and Neville thought Hermione was right, but Ron could barely accept it. After all, Charlie's letters frequently mentioned that his colleagues often got hurt accidentally. But Hagrid didn't take it seriously at all.
During this time, Harry and his friends also visited Hagrid several times, and Hagrid was very welcoming, although he was a bit surprised that Harry and his friends had discovered Nicolas Flamel's identity so quickly.
However, when Harry and the others mentioned the Philosopher's Stone or the three-headed dog, Hagrid would cover his mouth with his hands.
Obviously, he deeply regretted the last revelation and couldn't control his mouth very well, so he could only choose to use his hands to help.
Unable to gather any useful information from Hagrid, Harry and Ron could only continue spending time in the library with Hermione.
Neville really wanted to help, but his efficiency in completing the task was very low. With the Christmas holiday approaching, he didn't want to take homework home, so he could only devote more time to it.
Harry and his friends had recently read many large books, mostly biographies of medieval wizards, hoping to find records or descriptions about the Philosopher's Stone.
The result was nothing.
However, they did find some information about the three-headed dog.
The three-headed dog is a four-star demonic creature with an extremely manic temperament and high aggression. Its fur is highly resistant and has strong resistance to both magical and physical attacks.
Its roar can also produce a certain shock effect at close range. If it didn't lack medium and long-range abilities, it would even be a powerful demonic creature that could be classified as five stars.
This discovery relieved Harry and the others, but it also brought new problems.
The reason for their peace of mind was that, with such a powerful demonic creature guarding it, it would probably be difficult for Snape to break through its defense without alerting others. So, probably the Philosopher's Stone is safe.
The problem is that with the three-headed dog's presence, they couldn't investigate any further.
Four-star magical creatures are high-risk, and even adult wizards have difficulty handling them, requiring extensive knowledge. Harry and his four novice friends would be eliminated if they were sent up against it.
With this realization, Harry himself wasn't as worried anymore. At least for now, Snape hadn't figured out how to deal with the three-headed dog. In fact, judging by previous situations, he seemed incapable of handling the dog.
Harry and Ron felt very satisfied thinking about Snape's leg nearly being bitten off.
Because of this, Harry's enthusiasm for gathering information significantly diminished, and during this time, he began to focus more on studying and practicing magic. This magic wasn't limited to Hogwarts' curriculum but also came from Neil.
Previously, in the Quidditch field, Harry's magical growth had shown some effect, and recently Harry had been focusing on increasing his practice of this magic. At the same time, he continued trying other forms of magic.
It was a pity that, although he had acquired a lot of magic from Neil, only a few spells were ones he could actually use.
On the other hand, the mental and cerebral blocking techniques he had learned earlier were progressing slowly. Now he could barely build a mental barrier and form a false consciousness outside the barrier.
This was already the early stage of cerebral closure. Additionally, after arriving at school, he meditated almost every night before sleeping, and his mental strength and magical power had improved significantly.
He couldn't see the projection of his own soul through his mental power, so he had no idea what it was like.
But in terms of magic, his progress was clearly visible. His magical power had surpassed an inch and was developing toward two inches.
In other words, judging by the magical flames in his body, he had surpassed the average second-year student and was progressing toward the level of a third-year student.
Harry was wondering if he should find a way to pass this method on to Ron and the others.
Of course, to avoid suspicion, Harry needed to think of a better reason to explain the origin of the meditation method. If necessary, he didn't mind telling a small lie. After all, telling a lie wasn't any harder for him than eating or drinking.
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