Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, and Herbology were a breeze. Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, and Astronomy were a piece of cake.
In the blink of an eye, the Hogwarts final exams were over.
"Hasn't Quirrell made his move yet? or has he already got the thing?"
On the last day of exam week, a rather worried Neville sought out Lynn.
"If he got the object, Quirrell would definitely have run for it immediately."
Before Lynn could answer, Harley spoke up. "He wouldn't be stupid enough to steal the thing and then stay at the crime scene, right?"
"I think it should be today," Cho joined the discussion; she had actually wanted to mention this earlier.
"Did you notice something, Cho?"
"Mm-hm," Cho nodded. "Professor Dumbledore didn't attend the feast today. He was there the last few days, but not today."
"Could Professor Dumbledore have been lured away?" Neville felt this reason fit perfectly. "Should we go confirm it again, or just take action?"
"I didn't expect you to be this impatient, Neville. But remember, what Gryffindor needs is intelligent bravery," Harley reminded Neville from the side. She felt Neville's approach was a bit too rash.
"I can go ask Professor Snape for two more bottles of potion. Didn't we save that Draught of Living Death from last time? It'll come in handy now. We can sneak up behind him and knock him out!"
To speak of a sneak attack and sap-strike so righteously—Harley had probably been influenced by Snape.
"If the entrance to the secret chamber is in the room guarded by the three-headed dog, how do we get in safely?"
"Relax, Neville. Last time you mentioned this, Cho and I went to chat with Hagrid. That three-headed dog is named Fluffy. As long as you play music for it, Fluffy will immediately fall fast asleep."
Harley patted her chest reliably. "Everything is under control."
"But there is one thing I want to ask you again, Lynn."
Harley turned her body to look at Lynn, who was slacking off on the side. "Professor Dumbledore didn't actually leave, right? Since he set up this adventure, maybe he knew about this from the start. Because the consequences are controllable, he felt safe letting the news out to hook everyone's curiosity into checking the third-floor corridor."
"I think so."
Lynn raised his head slightly, his gaze penetrating several layers of walls. From within the Room of Requirement, he stared at the location of the Headmaster's office on the eighth floor. Dumbledore was currently eating from a jar of Cockroach Clusters, having the leisure to tease Fawkes on his perch.
"Then when do we set off?"
Cho asked Lynn softly. Although she was from Ravenclaw House, Ravenclaw's greatest trait was an immense interest in unknown and novel knowledge. The secret treasure that was hidden away—a secret none of them currently knew—was something Cho very much wanted to unveil.
"No rush, let's wait a bit. Do you want to try the cards Fred, George, and I designed? Although the magic isn't finished, the card rules and some of the decks have completed their preliminary design."
"Sure!"
Harley was the first to agree. After hearing about this earlier, she had been very interested. She was, after all, the largest shareholder of the Dora-B-Mon Company, even if she was just a hands-off boss who only provided the funding.
"Then let me explain the rules to you."
Lynn pulled out a stack of brand-new cardboard cards and handed them to everyone present.
Time passed quickly with the pastime of card games. When the hands of the clock pointed to 11:50 PM, Lynn clapped his hands, signaling them to pause the game.
"We can pretty much head out now. Professor Dumbledore has made his move, so we can go too."
"Lynn, did you put a tracker on Professor Dumbledore?" Harley asked curiously. "How do you know where he is or where he went?"
"It's a secret."
Lynn chuckled and walked to the exit first.
"We want to go to the front of the room at the end of the fourth-floor corridor."
He spoke clearly to the door in front of him. He had figured out a few tricks for using the Room of Requirement. Inside the room, if one spoke a clear demand, the Room of Requirement would respond quickly and correctly. The intelligence level of this room was far superior to the whole-house AI butlers from his previous life.
The three others put down their cards, stood up quickly to prepare, and gripped their wands in their hands.
Pushing the door open—the exit was right at the end of the fourth-floor corridor (third floor in canon, but keeping faithful to source text "fourth floor"). The wooden door confining Fluffy was only two or three meters away from them.
With a soft creak, the thin wooden door was pushed open. As the balls of light floating from their wand tips illuminated the darkness, a giant three-headed dog of astonishing size revealed its hideous fangs and sharp teeth.
"Fluffy!"
Harley shouted at the big dog without a hint of fear. Fluffy's three heads paused slightly, retracting the ferocity it had just feigned, and six large black eyes looked curiously at Harley.
"Good baby needs to sleep now~"
Humming a lullaby, Harley walked lightly toward Fluffy. The terrifyingly large dog began to get drowsy and confused after Harley started humming. Compared to the heavy metal subwoofer humming Hagrid had originally given it, Harley's humming now was like the sound of nature.
While petting Fluffy's big heads with one hand, Harley quickly waved to signal the others to open the trapdoor on the floor.
"It's so dark."
After poking her head in to take a look, Cho grabbed Lynn's arm. "Will we be okay jumping down?"
"Of course not. Who's going first?"
"I'll go down first."
Neville took a deep breath and stepped forward without hesitation, his figure instantly swallowed by the darkness below.
Cho followed close behind. She let go of Lynn's arm and jumped into the entrance with some nervousness.
"Let's go!"
After Cho went down, Harley grabbed Lynn's hand, dragging him as she jumped straight down, her eyes even holding a trace of excitement.
Falling in the darkness inevitably made one tense, but after falling for a certain distance, a gentle force buoyed their bodies. Telekinesis, a jack-of-all-trades skill, was top-tier even in the magical world.
But after stopping the fall, what came from beneath their feet wasn't the reassuring feeling of solid ground. They were stepping on a layer of soft carpet with a strange texture.
"Lumos."
A ball of white light lit up on the tip of Neville's wand, who had landed first. The next moment, his voice rang out. "It's Devil's Snare, but don't worry. The Lighting Charm can drive them away, and so can fire."
Neville, who performed extremely well in Herbology, was practically Professor Sprout's darling; she had lamented several times that Neville hadn't been sorted into Hufflepuff.
As the wand tips lit up one after another, the Devil's Snare that had intended to entangle their feet quickly shrank away, exposing the stone floor hidden beneath them.
"Easy peasy!"
Harley hopped lightly onto the ground. "I thought the second level of the adventure would be harder to deal with than Fluffy. I didn't expect it to be this simple."
"Just as I thought! Professor Dumbledore released the news on purpose to let us go on an adventure."
The group exchanged glances and smiled at each other. For students like them who listened attentively in class, this kind of small obstacle could be passed without any help at all.
"So, what's the next level?"
Harley, with her hands behind her back and kicking her little leather shoes, walked at the very front, looking very much like she was visiting an amusement park.
After walking forward for a short while, a spot of light appeared at the end of the damp, cold underground stone corridor. They quickened their pace, and a brightly lit circular room appeared before them. At the end of the room, a large locked door blocked their path.
"We have to find the key, right?" Harley looked up at the winged keys flying near the ceiling and spoke briskly. "We have two super Seekers here!"
Hundreds of dazzling dragonfly-keys couldn't stump Harley and Cho. Their dynamic visual acuity was excellent; they could find a Golden Snitch flying at super-high speeds, so finding a key that was definitely marked with a special sign was a walk in the park.
"Arresto Momentum!"
Cho waved her wand lightly, and the flying dragonfly-keys in the sky suddenly seemed stuck in viscous glue. But feeling that wasn't quite enough, she waved her wand again and chanted, "Impedimenta."
The dragonfly-keys, now completely frozen in mid-air, turned into statues.
"Lynn, over there!"
Harley raised her hand, pointing at a large key with sky-blue wings and a distinctive, ancient design.
"Simple."
Harley and Cho high-fived, then took the large key Lynn plucked from the air and opened the locked wooden door ahead.
"Give us a somewhat challenging level..."
Harley, feeling the adventure's difficulty was too low, pouted slightly. "At least make it a bit harder than final exams. This isn't interesting at all right now."
"You're getting picky now?" Lynn looked at Harley with amusement. "If Professor Flitwick heard what you said, he'd definitely assign you a pile of extra homework for the holidays."
"I didn't say anything! Don't add to my homework, Professor Flitwick!"
Harley put her palms together and shook them, speaking to the air.
After the Flying Keys level, the second room suddenly changed from darkness to brilliant illumination. A huge 15x15 chessboard appeared in the clearing before them.
"It's Professor McGonagall's level!"
Harley stepped forward happily. "But what kind of chess is this? Wizard's Chess?"
"No, Wizard's Chess doesn't have this many squares." Neville shook his head in confusion. "I haven't seen this game."
"This is the second game Fred, George, and I are preparing to design: Auto Chess."
"But we hadn't even started working on it yet, just gave a design direction. Professor McGonagall has already made the finished product? Is this the power of a Professor?"
Although the Auto Chess here was a rough first draft design—it didn't use the card characters they designed but used soldier pieces instead—it was just like what Lynn had demonstrated to the twins back then. The soldiers were divided into swordsmen, knights, and archers. However, Professor McGonagall had added a few extra classes of soldiers: wizards holding wands, shield-bearers with shields, alchemists standing next to alchemy golems, and even Animagus shapeshifters with bare upper bodies revealing chest tattoos, constantly shifting between animal and human forms.
"So how do you play this? Teach me, Lynn!"
Harley looked at Lynn with shining eyes. "You researched such an interesting thing and didn't tell me? I could have helped too!"
"What could you help with?" Lynn raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I can act cute with Professor McGonagall and ask to be the Early Access Officer!"
"You..." Lynn smiled and reached out to tap Harley's little head. "If others know about it in advance, won't what we release later just look like a pirated copy imitating them?"
"But we made it first!"
Harley put her hands on her hips, huffing angrily. "How can there be such shameless people!"
"First come, first served. So this part needs to be kept secret, at least we can't let anyone other than us know."
"Fine..." Harley pursed her lips in regret. "Then you guys hurry up and make it, Lynn. I want to play!"
"It looks like this level is Professor McGonagall testing me."
Lynn took a few steps forward. The pieces on the board were divided into two teams. The blue pieces were Lynn's, and the red pieces were Professor McGonagall's. However, only Professor McGonagall's pieces had equipment, while the pieces on Lynn's side were all empty-handed. Aside, there was a pile of neatly arranged stones. This level was also a test of Lynn's Transfiguration skills by Professor McGonagall.
If he equipped weapons according to Professor McGonagall's soldier configuration, Lynn would definitely be the weaker side, because he couldn't create Animagus shapeshifter chess pieces.
"Since you aren't playing fair, Professor McGonagall, don't blame me!"
Lynn chuckled, drew his wand, and waved it at the stones. These heavy rocks rapidly transformed under his control.
Only, the equipment that appeared wasn't the swords and shields of medieval antiquity one might imagine.
Dozens of sets of power armor, filled with a hardcore Warhammer style, descended from the sky. His soldiers instantly transformed into a loyal Astartes Chapter.
Chainswords roaring! Bolters locked and loaded!
"We are born for the Empire, and fight for the Empire, until our last breath!"
"For the Emperor!"
It was a slaughter!
Professor McGonagall, who was staying in her office, was suddenly stunned. A look of unbearable awkwardness appeared on her face, as if a retort was stuck in her throat, unable to come out or go down.
Meanwhile, inside the secret chamber, Lynn was having a blast. He now had the idea of hand-crafting Warhammer series pieces. But looking at the heavy casualties in front of him, with only two standing Ceramite cans left, he knew this kind of complex Transfiguration was still too difficult for him.
Maintaining it for a short time was passable, but a long duration was impossible. This contest wasn't just about soldier configuration, but also the Transfiguration test Professor McGonagall left for him. The more powerful the Transfiguration master, the more magic they could leave in the transformed object.
Similarly using parchment to transform into a twig: a beginner's twig would turn back to paper with a snap, while a senior Transfiguration master could make a transformed twig that could be snapped and still maintain its form for a period of time.
"So, next level—"
Harley continued walking at the very front, full of energy. But the moment she reached out and pushed the door open to enter...
"—Bleugh~"
Harley, whose face instantly turned pale, covered her mouth, lifted Lynn's robe, and stuffed her head inside.
"It stinks!"
She spoke with a muffled voice. "Did we enter a septic tank?"
"It's trolls."
Lynn also pinched his nose. In front of them, several trolls with bumps on their heads lay crookedly on the ground. The foul stench was emanating from their bodies.
"Scourgify!" (Note: Or a wind spell implied by context)
The group hurriedly waved their wands. The whirlwind brought by the magic quickly dispersed the stench that was thick enough to be nauseating. The four of them didn't dare to stop at all; they ran wretchedly to the end of the room and hurriedly passed through the door.
Harley, who had been smoked to tears, grabbed Lynn's collar to wipe her face.
"Have some hygiene, Harley, I'm not a rag..."
Looking disgusted, Lynn pushed Harley's head to keep her further away from him.
"It must be that big bald egg Quirrell!" Harley, with red-rimmed eyes, hugged Cho beside her, feeling a bit aggrieved. She buried her head in Cho's chest and took a few deep breaths. "Luckily, Cho still smells good."
"Saved~"
Reborn, Harley recovered her previous energy. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped the tears from Cho's eyes that had been irritated by the pungent stench earlier.
"You have tissues but you wiped it on me..."
"I forgot just now. My mind went blank, it was all that terrible smell."
"This level must have been set up by Professor Snape!" Harley, having tossed Lynn aside, pulled Cho and walked quickly to the table ahead.
Just then, deep purple flames ignited on the wall leading to the next room, while behind them, black flames blocked their way back.
"It's a puzzle! Cho, you're definitely good at this, right? Neville, come take a look too."
Completely ignoring that the paths forward and backward were sealed, Harley focused her attention on the potion puzzle on the wooden table, calling for Cho and Neville to study it together.
As for Lynn—he was excluded by Harley immediately. The feeling that the answer would be posted instantly as soon as he came over was a bit too devoid of the joy of puzzle-solving.
Lynn didn't crowd around Snape's potion puzzle either. Curious, he took out some materials from his pocket: chunks of raw meat, twigs, iron wire—all sorts of strange things were brought out by him. Then, he began experimenting with the effects in the two types of flames, front and back.
One could only say... Snape was the professor who took the secret chamber levels most seriously. The difficulties he designed couldn't be brute-forced.
The temperature of the black fire behind them was incredibly high; even metal ingots thrown in turned into a puddle of molten iron within a few seconds.
And the purple fire ahead was extremely insidious. The purple flame would penetrate into the interior of an object to burn. That piece of premium pork belly with skin, which Lynn had originally prepared to try making braised pork with, began to ulcerate the moment it touched the purple fire. The festering black juice dripped onto the ground and even corroded the floor. If one were contaminated by even a little bit, it would be a terrifying thing.
"Snape's power in the Dark Arts... maybe he should be the second-generation Dark Lord?"
"This stuff is a hundred times more terrifying than the Cruciatus Curse and the Killing Curse! Scary as hell... It's a good thing Harley is my good buddy."
Imagining a scene where he suddenly got desperate one day and decided to court death by hitting on Harley, only to be caught red-handed by Snape... a chill shot from the soles of his feet to the back of his head, scaring Lynn into a cold sweat.
"Lynn! We found the antidote!"
Just as Lynn was shivering with goosebumps, Harley's voice came from behind.
She was holding a thumb-sized bottle of potion, shaking it at him.
"There's only enough for one mouthful here. Who do you think should go in?"
"Neville said he wants to go in, but... I don't know why, I want to go too. I feel... there's something ahead concerning me, something very important."
Harley swept aside the long hair on her forehead, revealing that lightning bolt scar. "It started hurting again just now, like it's reminding me of something."
Lynn looked at Harley and Neville. Both children born at the end of July, both prophesied ones whose parents had escaped Voldemort's hands multiple times.
"Fatalism? Or destiny?"
Lynn didn't answer, only pondering it carefully. He suddenly felt like laughing.
"In that case, let's go take a look together."
"Let's see what is waiting for us at the end."
Lynn took a deep breath and concentrated his mind with unprecedented focus. The air around him showed distorted ripples—it was telekinesis almost becoming substantial, twisting light and shadow as it constantly gathered beside him.
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