Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 116 Dragon Ring

After the snow in spring, the temperature at Hogwarts is still a bit low.

Even though it was such a warm and sunny day, with a roaring fire burning in the fireplace, the cabin still felt a bit cool after sitting there for a long time.

Hagrid made tea for them and brought them a plate of rock cakes and a pot of turtle curry soup that had been simmering since the morning.

Out of a clear awareness of their teeth, Harry and the others politely declined Hagrid's kindness, even though they only ate some chocolate on the court in the morning.

On the contrary, Bourne not only "crunched" the rock crust cake, but also tried to use it to soak in turtle curry soup, unlocking a new way of eating food.

"Today is Sunday. Isn't Wood doing Quidditch training?" Hagrid asked curiously. Being from Gryffindor, he still knew a lot about the affairs of his own academy. "Come to me as soon as the training is over. What's the matter with you?"

"Yes." Harry replied simply.

He felt there was no need to beat around the bush.

"We wonder if you can tell us, besides the three-headed dog Luwei, what other mechanism protects the Magic Stone?"

Hagrid frowned at them.

"Of course I can't say." Hagrid replied simply. Moreover, he spoke so loudly that a buzzing sound echoed throughout the hut.

"There are two reasons for this:

First, I don’t know it myself.

Second, you already know too much, so even if I knew it, I wouldn’t tell you. That rock makes perfect sense here.

It was almost stolen in Gringotts - I assume you know all about this, right? I don't understand how you even know about Fluffy. "

Bourne sat at the table, eating rock biscuits and turtle curry soup intently.

It should be said without considering that Hagrid treated him and the Weasley twins to some late-night snacks during the patrol - meat soup made with poisonous snakes and wolverine meat, and outrageous ermine sandwiches. Dark cuisine—Hagrid’s craftsmanship is actually very to his liking.

Hermione glanced at Bourne.

Unlike Harry and Ron, two of Bourne's roommates, although she knew that Bourne was not a talkative person, she still disapproved of the two telling them about the Philosopher's Stone and Nick in front of Bourne. · Flamel and Snape content.

Or to be more precise, she actually didn't really hope that there was a fourth little wizard in Hogwarts who knew what they were busy with recently.

First, doing so increases the likelihood of leaks.

Secondly, this matter itself is based on suspicion of Snape. She feels that it is difficult to convince a good student in the Potions class without solid evidence (Bourne is currently the only one in their class) Gryffindor, who had added to the score during Snape's lesson, stood in their camp.

However, an accident that happened dozens of minutes ago made it difficult for the trio to follow their previous plan of slowly investigating their Potions professor.

At the end of Wood's Quidditch training, the golden snitch used for training was blown off the field by a gust of wind, so Harry had to follow him on his broomstick. He drove Nimbus 2000 all the way around the castle, and later chased the golden snitch and flew into the Forbidden Forest. The trees were so dense that he had to scrape through the canopy to search.

As luck would have it, when he caught the golden snitch near the top of a towering beech tree, he actually heard someone arguing under the tree.

Curious Harry lay on a thick branch like a sloth, clutching his broomstick tightly in his hand, looking down through the gaps in the leaves.

Under the beech tree, in a shadowy clearing, stood an adult wizard wearing black wizard robes.

Even though he couldn't see his face, Harry could tell that this person was Snape just by looking at his signature greasy hair.

Moreover, Snape was not alone. Professor Quirrell was there too. Because of the angle of his vision, Harry couldn't see Quirrell's expression, but he could see that the poor Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was shaking.

At that time, Harry couldn't help but prick up his ears as much as he could.

"No... I don't know why you... would choose to meet here, Severus..."

"Oh, I don't think this matter should be made public," Snape said, his voice cold, "After all, you don't want others to know about this kind of thing, right?"

Harry leaned forward. Quirrell was muttering something. But Snape interrupted. "Do you know how to subdue Hagrid's three-headed dog?"

"No, no, no, Severus, I..."

"If you include those trolls you are looking for, I'm afraid you have solved two levels, right?" Snape said, taking another step towards him. "I also asked, why do you always go to Hogsmeade recently? It turns out you want to buy some things that only Muggles can use."

"I, I, I don't know you..."

"You know exactly what I mean."

A fat, round-faced bird nearby (Harry didn't recognize the augur) suddenly screamed loudly, startling Harry and almost falling from the tree. Fortunately, he steadied himself just in time to hear what Snape said next.

"Keep your little secret tricks. I'll wait."

"But, but, I don't, don't, don't know..."

"Very good, very energetic." Snape once again transformed into a ruthless sentence-breaking machine. "Because it won't be long before you have time to think about it carefully and fully understand who you are loyal to, I'm afraid we will have another conversation - if you want to do this kind of thing, in-depth communication is necessary."

After saying this, Snape strode out of the clearing without waiting for Quirrell to reply. But Harry could still see Quirrell standing there like a wooden and clay sculpture, standing motionless for a while, and then walked towards the direction of Hogwarts Castle.

After both professors had left, Harry jumped from the beech onto the broom and quickly returned to the Quidditch field. Most of the members of the Gryffindor team had already gone back to have lunch. Only Wood, Ron and Hermione were still waiting for him.

Harry returned the golden snitch used for training to Wood, and the extremely responsible captain asked several of them to go back for lunch.

And he will stay at the stadium for a while longer, "clean up" all the training equipment that has been passed down by Gryffindor for several generations, put it in a box after some maintenance, and finally take it back to his dormitory.

On the way back, Harry told Ron and Hermione what he had seen and heard. So, this was the beginning of a series of things that they turned around and ran to the hut to consult Hagrid. Seeing that Hagrid was unwilling to answer them, Hermione changed her mind and began to flatter the Forbidden Forest guard in a sweet tone.

"Oh, Hagrid, you probably don't want to tell us, right? But I feel like you must know. Because of so many things that happened in Hogwarts, which one can escape your eyes?"

Hagrid's beard twitched, Hermione's strategy was working.

"Actually, we just want to know who designed those mechanisms." Hermione continued. "We want to know, besides you, who else does Dumbledore trust to help him."

After hearing these last words, Hagrid puffed up his chest happily. Harry and Ron smiled satisfied at Hermione.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to tell you - let me think about it - Dumbledore borrowed Fluffy from me. Then, he asked several other teachers to cast magic. Professor Sprout, Professor Professor Levi, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell."

He counted on his fingers, "Of course - Dumbledore did the magic himself - wait, I forgot someone.

Oh, by the way, it's Professor Snape. He also contributed his own efforts to protect the magic stone.

So the suspicion you told me before is impossible. If Snape really wanted to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, how could he help protect it?
Even if Snape really had this idea, how could he hide it from the wise Principal Dumbledore? "

Hagrid said with confidence.

However, Hermione felt that his analysis was actually somewhat illogical. It is true that Snape did his best to protect the Philosopher's Stone, but couldn't this be a "retreat to advance" strategy?

If he doesn't contribute, will Dumbledore find someone else to arrange protective measures? Now that he has contributed, he knows at least one of the measures. In addition, he was threatening Quirrell and Hagrid's three-headed dog... Snape had now cracked almost half of the protection measures!

"Hagrid, are you sure to protect the Philosopher's Stone..." Hermione was about to confirm the number again, but she suddenly realized that not only her, but also Hagrid had not avoided the word "Philosopher's Stone" when chatting just now.

You know, the three of them had been researching for two months to obtain information about Nick Flamel and the magic stone.

During this period, Hagrid would not say even one more word to them, no matter how bad or nice it was.

But now, there was another little wizard (Bourne) present. How could Hagrid openly tell the story about the Philosopher's Stone?
Knowing that the three of them were investigating Snape was actually not a big deal to the little lion of Gryffindor.

After all, Snape is the head of Slytherin, and he is the most unpopular professor in Hogwarts (one of them). There is no shortage of Gryffindors who want to be with this "Hogwarts" every year. A brave little wizard who fights against "a stubborn disease".

Just like George and Fred, the twins declared to the other Gryffindor little lions in the common room more than once: before graduating, they must play a prank on Snape that he will remember (although most of them The probability is that the mouth is high).

But when it comes to the "Philosopher's Stone", things are completely different.

Money attracts people's hearts, while oil breeds mold - even Burne, who is also a Gryffindor, should not be despicable - but after hearing such a rare word as "Philosopher's Stone", wouldn't he be curious about it?
What if Bourne asked his grandfather out of curiosity, wouldn't it be equivalent to exposing the fact that "the Sorcerer's Stone is in Hogwarts"?

Moreover, Bourne's grandfather was the former dean of Slytherin, so he might not tell Snape about this matter.

The little witch froze all of a sudden.

Her speechless look and the secret glance towards Bourne caught Hagrid's attention.

"Oh, by the way, I almost forgot." Hagrid slapped his forehead suddenly, and then quickly took out a flattened paper bag from the pocket of his clothes.

He embarrassedly handed the paper bag to Bourne: "After I drove Principal Dumbledore there on my flying motorcycle, Mr. Flamel asked me to bring you something, saying it was a gift for you. ——He said it was a souvenir of the 'Christmas adventure' or something - Of course, it's possible that I was the footman. I was thinking about the turtle curry soup simmering on the stove, and he was a Frenchman. So, you know..."

"Bourne, you actually know Nick Flamel!" Ron said in surprise: "Had we known this, Harry and I would have asked you directly. We don't have to borrow so many books from the library. Those books are so easy to read." My head still hurts."

Harry was also surprised by this.

After all, they already knew that the great alchemist who created the Magic Stone was an old man who lived for more than 600 years. It was hard for him to imagine how Bourne knew each other.

"So, Bourne, since you have known Nick Flamel for a long time, you have also known that the Philosopher's Stone is hidden in Hogwarts?" Hermione's eyes widened.

"In fact, I only met the master for the first time a few days ago before Christmas. He organized a dinner party among friends at that time, and my grandfather Horace was also invited." Already full Bourne, who had drunk enough, explained while unpacking the paper package wrapped in kraft paper: "Something happened that day. We saw a 'fire dragon', and then..."

It wasn't that Byrne was learning about the Riddler and deliberately trying to show off, but that he was stunned by the "souvenir" Nick Flamel gave him - he just mentioned "Fire Dragon" and when he opened the paper package, he discovered, The alchemy master who loved fishing actually gave him a fire dragon model that was scaled down many times.

Byrne reached for the model and realized it was a bit heavy, probably made of some kind of metal.

Moreover, that metal should not be the common copper and iron. Judging from the size and weight, it should be doped with precious metals such as gold and silver. It's just that the color of the model is dark green with a bit of blood red, a bit like the "Hungarian Horntail" he saw that night.

"Ok?"

Just when Bourne started to rub and play with the model with his thumb, it started to move quite quickly like those movable alchemy dolls.

This Charmander model struggled to free itself from Bern's tiger's mouth, spread its wings and opened its mouth wide, and sprayed out a cluster of sparks in a demonstration. Then, it wrapped its tail around Bourne's index finger and held its tail in its mouth like an ouroboros.

In front of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hagrid, the model turned into a ring on Bourne's hand, and he even put it on himself.

"This is?"

Bourne grasped the ring with his other hand, trying to remove it from his index finger. As a result, I don't know which mechanism he touched, and the fire dragon ring spun half a circle. Then, it began to transform again.

The fire dragon ring made of unknown metal directly turned into a mercury-like substance, and then spread along the palms, forearms, arms in just a few seconds...

They spread all the way to cover Bourne's body, and even the hair on his head was tightly wrapped, as if he was covered with armor.

The other people in Hagrid's hut looked at this strange change, and they were all so surprised that they opened their mouths wide but could not say a single word.

　The power armor is here... I also have a fairly interesting setting for its power source.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)