Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

Harry thought for a moment, then jumped back onto his broom and took off with a bang.

He glided silently over the castle, saw Snape running into the Forbidden Forest, and flew after him.

The trees in the Forbidden Forest were so dense that he couldn't see where Snape had gone.

So it could only circle quietly over the forest, constantly lowering its altitude and flying close to the treetops... Finally, it heard the sound of someone talking.

He flew lightly toward them and landed silently on a tall beech tree.

Harry carefully climbed up a branch, holding on to his broomstick tightly, and peered down through the leaves -

Beneath the treetops, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape and another hooded figure.

"Severus, I think we need to discuss how to help the master get the Philosopher's Stone."

Quirrell's voice came from beneath his hood.

Harry was shocked to find that this cowardly and embarrassed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was not stuttering at all!

"Tell me your plan, I will cooperate unconditionally." Snape's cold voice sounded.

"That's good. I hope you won't betray your master's will." Quirrell said coldly, "First, we must get the three-headed dog's weakness from that big guy."

"Severus, I'll leave this matter to you...it should be okay, right?"

"No problem." Snape nodded. "We've worked together for many years. Hagrid won't be too wary of me."

"That's good. I hope I can hear from you before next weekend," Quirrell said.

The two hooded professors turned together and left the Forbidden Forest like a gust of wind.

On the top of the beech tree above the Forbidden Forest, Harry stared in disbelief, covering his mouth for fear of screaming out -

What did he see? Quirrell and Snape were in cahoots, trying to steal Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone!

There is more than one traitorous professor at Hogwarts!

……

Chapter 74 The Three Little Ones' Home Was Stolen

When Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room, the students inside had already started a party to celebrate their victory in the Quidditch match.

"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione was the first to notice him, stood up and waved.

"We won! You won! We won!" Ron shouted, slapping Harry on the back. "Everyone's waiting for you in the common room. We're having a party to celebrate."

"Oh, by the way, Fred and George stole some cakes and other things from the kitchen, and I heard Lee Jordan even got a hold of some butterbeer..."

"Never mind that for now," Harry panted. "Let's find an empty room and I'll tell you..."

They hurried out of the common room and found an empty classroom with the door unlocked.

Harry looked around for a long time, making sure Peeves was not in the room, then he turned around, closed the door, and told them what he had seen and heard.

"So, our analysis is correct. That thing must be the Philosopher's Stone."

Ron pretended to be deep and said thoughtfully.

"That's not the most important thing." Hermione's voice became a little trembling. "Didn't you hear? Snape and Quirrell are actually in cahoots. They plan to work together to get the stone!"

"Yes, they plan to extract information from Hagrid and want to subdue the three-headed dog Fluffy..." said Harry.

"So we must remind Hagrid not to tell Snape how to subdue Fluffy!" Hermione nodded heavily.

……

The next day, the trio went to the cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest early in the morning, intending to remind Hagrid to be careful of Snape.

However, when they knocked on the wooden door of the cabin, they found that the person who opened the door was not Hagrid, who took up most of the room, but a little wizard wearing a green striped scarf.

"Hayden, why are you here?" Harry and the other two were surprised.

"Oh, when I got up, I found a strange little snake in the fireplace. It felt like it was some kind of magical animal." Lycos smiled playfully and put the three little ones into the door.

"It's a shame that Professor Kettleburn isn't in the office, so I thought I'd try my luck with the gamekeeper... I heard Hagrid is pretty good at dealing with magical creatures, too."

"Oh, of course, I like these little things." Hagrid's muffled voice came from inside the house.

Harry and the other two looked over and saw a small gray-white snake with flashing red eyes held in Hagrid's big hands, roasting next to the fire in the fireplace.

"Hagrid, are you roasting snake?" Ron asked curiously.

"What roasted snake?" Hagrid was a little confused. He turned around and looked at Ron. "Oh, you mean this little guy? It's called a Fire Ash Snake. It won't be roasted by such a small flame."

"I seem to remember what was written in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—" Hermione said thoughtfully.

"When magical flames burn uncontrollably for a long time, a fire ash snake is born. It will crawl from the unattended fire and lurk in the shadows, seeking a dark and secluded place to lay its eggs..."

"Yes, you are quite right, Hermione."

Hagrid placed the fire ash snake in his left hand and gave her a thumbs up with his right hand. "Mr. Hayden is lucky to have discovered this fire ash snake in time, otherwise it would have set the entire Slytherin dormitory on fire in a few minutes."

"But I'm not sure. Did you find this fire ash snake in the dormitory fireplace? Logically speaking, ordinary flames in the fireplace shouldn't be enough to give birth to a fire ash snake..."

"Maybe it's because it's the Hogwarts flame. Burning for too long, it's bound to pick up some magical aura." Lycos smiled. "The requirements for magical flames are too demanding. Shouldn't something with a bit of magical aura be able to give birth to a Fire Ash Snake?"

"Maybe it will work." Hagrid pondered as he began to carefully study the fire-gray snake in front of him.

"Luckily you came to me. If you had gone to Professor Kettleburn, who knows what he would have said to you... Let me tell you in secret, he had an accident with the Fire Ash Snake decades ago..."

"When Armando Dippet was Headmaster, plays were still permitted... You may have heard that The Fountain of Luck was adapted into a pantomime at Hogwarts."

"In the play 'The Fountain of Good Fortune', a fire ash snake was used to play the bloated, blind earthworm. It was cast with a swelling spell by Professor Kettleburn, and soon after, it exploded in the Great Hall..."

Hagrid was still mumbling about Professor Kettleburn's past embarrassments.

In fact, this fire ash snake was certainly not something that Lycos found in the dormitory temporarily.

This was the prop he asked Voldemort to make for him.

As a Dark Lord who spends all day with snakes and is good at Parseltongue, Voldemort obviously knows a lot about the Fire Ash Snake and knows exactly what kind of magic flame should be used to quickly create the Fire Ash Snake.

So it didn't take long for Lycos to get a brand new Fire Ash Snake from Quirrell, who was controlled by Voldemort.

Because the lifespan of a fire ash snake is usually only more than an hour, this fire ash snake was frozen by Quirrell with a freezing spell and would not be thawed in the flames until it was needed.

Early this morning, Lycos placed the frozen fire ash snake in the fireplace.

So, what Lycos told Hagrid about the fire ash snake found in the fireplace could actually be considered true.

"Would you like some tea?" Hagrid saw that Harry and the other two were still standing at the door, and finally stopped studying the fire-gray snake.

He placed the fire ash snake in the fireplace and blocked it with a cauldron made from a giant fire crab's shell to prevent it from escaping and setting the cabin on fire. Then he stood up and looked at the three little ones.

"As long as we keep it contained within the flames, these little guys won't have the chance to lay eggs, and their lives will wear out over time," Hagrid said. "Oh, I almost forgot! Do you need a pot of tea?"

"No thanks, Hagrid." Hermione forced a smile.

Then she hid behind Ron and whispered to the two Gryffindor boys, "If our previous analysis is correct, I think there's something wrong with Hayden. Let's wait until he leaves before alerting Hagrid."

Harry and Ron nodded before walking into the cabin together.

"What are you doing here so early today?" Hagrid took out two hard-looking rock cakes and handed them to Harry and the other two. "Don't you have classes today?"

"We got up pretty early, and there's still some time before class." Ron glanced at Lecos secretly, "So I decided to come see you first."

"Look at me?" Hagrid asked in surprise. "Can't you come on weekends or when you don't have classes?"

"That's right." Lycos laughed playfully. "Do you have anything you want to ask Hagrid?"

"Don't worry, just ask! I won't tell anyone."

……

Chapter 75 Snape Silences People

"No, no, we don't really have anything to do." Hermione quickly retorted, "It's really just that I haven't been here for a while, and I wanted to come see Hagrid."

"Well, that's what you said." Lycos shrugged. "Since you don't have anything important to do, I shouldn't need to avoid you."

As he spoke, he looked up at the big guy who almost reached the ceiling: "Hagrid, do you still have rock cakes? I want to try some."

"Oh, of course!" Hagrid took a burnt, hard brown pancake from the table and handed it to Lycos. "To be honest, this is my unique way of making it. It's chewy, but it's a pity that Harry and the others don't like it."

Harry, Ron and Hermione on the side smiled awkwardly.

They don't want to break their teeth by eating this.

Lycos took the still warm pancake in his hand and looked it over.

It can be barely seen that Hagrid seemed to intend to make it into a circle, but due to his craftsmanship, he could only piece together an irregular polygon with many ugly lumps protruding around it.

He looked at the "cake" in his hand, then turned back to look at the three little ones with nervous faces, and silently put the rock skin cake into his mouth.

'I've sacrificed too much to buy time,' Lycos thought.

Now he just hoped that Snape would receive the message in time and come over sooner.

With a "crunch" sound, a piece of something that was not sure whether it was stone or dough was bitten off from the rock cake by Lycos.

"hiss……"

Lycos took a deep breath and felt like his teeth were about to break out.

"I told you, no one would accept Hagrid's rock cake." Ron muttered quietly beside him.

While Hagrid wasn't looking, Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement.

Lycos: “…”

He had thought that the rock biscuit would be hard to bite, but he didn't expect it to be so hard. The surface of this biscuit was really like its name, no different from stone.

"How does it taste?" Hagrid looked at him expectantly.

Lycos hesitated for a moment, then slowly raised a thumbs up.

"It's good," he said reluctantly. "It would be even better if it were a little more tender."

"That won't do!" Hagrid said confidently, "The unique feature of my method is the crust. The rock cakes made by others are too soft and have no chewiness at all!"

As expected of a half-giant, right? His teeth are just as good.

Lycos didn't try to persuade him any further and could only pretend to gnaw on the rock cake, but in fact he only gnawed off the raisins stuck on the skin.