Chapter 32: Philosopher's Stone

In Professor Quirrell's office.

"Master... Master, I was wrong, please give me another chance..."

Professor Quirrell was lying on the ground, in a terrible state with a depressing expression.

He seemed to be enduring massive pain, and feeling by the few screams coming out of his mouth, it was even worse than when Arthur cast the Cruciatus Curse on him earlier.

"Master... spare me, someone cast the Cruciatus Curse on me this time."

"Next time, I will surely take care of Harry Potter."

The classroom was empty and only Professor Quirrell being the only one in the room. His begging voice filled the room with a mysterious and creepy atmosphere.

Slowly, the scarf wrapped around his head began to loosen and reveal not the back of his head but rather a noseless face.

It was Voldemort.

Voldemort stopped torturing Professor Quirrell, but Professor Quirrell continued to convulse.

"I am gonna let it go this time. If you fail again next time, you won't see tomorrow again," Voldemort said.

Voldemort also knew that Professor Quirrell had indeed been hit by the Cruciatus Curse just now. And the caster's methods were extremely clever.

He couldn't even trace the source.

After a while, Professor Quirrell slowly stood up from the ground, his whole body soaked in sweat.

"My great master, do you know who cast the Cruciatus Curse on me just now? Was it Severus Snape?" Professor Quirrell weakly asked.

"Hmph! Snape? With his knowledge of Dark Arts, he couldn't even do something that I couldn't trace," Voldemort sneered.

With a disdainful snort, Voldemort spoke, "It must be Dumbledore. Besides him, who else at Hogwarts has such high-level skills?"

"Dumbledore? But isn't he a white wizard?" asked a puzzled Professor Quirrell

"Do you really naively think that Dumbledore is just a wizard who can do Transfiguration? His skills in Dark Arts are definitely not inferior to mine! He's a self-righteous old man!"

Voldemort's tone is extremely sarcastic, but it also hides a deep fear.

Professor Quirrell dared not deny him and could only follow Voldemort's words to ask further.

"What do you think his purpose is in doing this?"

"Idiot, your previous actions were too obvious and raised his suspicions. This time was just a small warning to you from him." Voldemort angrily said

"It must be like this!"

...

Hermione looked seriously at Arthur.

"Professor Snape hates Harry so much. He must have cast a spell just now to make Harry fall off his broom and die. Ron and I saw him muttering something under his breath."

Hermione stopped Arthur, who was on his way to the library and pulled him into a corner.

Then she began to explain her and Harry's conclusion.

Arthur said Hermione's conclusion was too impulsive. Professor Snape had been working at Hogwarts for so many years. If he had any intention of harming students, Dumbledore would have fired him long ago.

Arthur had no intention of telling the trio the truth.

Firstly, he couldn't explain how he knew so much.

Secondly, Maybe this was Dumbledore's first test for Harry and if Arthur had just step in, wouldn't that have been a pointless?

In addition, Arthur was also planning to get involved at the last moment and see if he could get his hands on the Philosopher's Stone.

He was still very interested in the top creation of alchemy.

Arthur had already studied runes thoroughly and had begun to research magical text and magical patterns.

Magical texts and magical patterns are not the same thing, But both are important to alchemy. If he could get a Philosopher's Stone, Arthur believed that his research progress would be greatly improved.

Hermione saw that Arthur didn't believe her and was annoyed, pouting her small lips. She was unhappy that Arthur trusted Professor Snape more than her.

Although she had some other feelings towards Arthur, Hermione decided that after she, Harry, and Ron found strong evidence, she would make Arthur admit his mistake and beg for her forgiveness.

Thinking about this, a silly smile appeared on Hermione's cute round face, looking foolish.

Arthur looked at the little witch, somewhat puzzled. He didn't know what she was thinking and why she was smiling so foolishly.

However, he didn't have the mind to explore the little witch's secrets. He had a serious task now, and the knowledge of runes was even more complicated.

He also had to study alchemy.

Thinking of this, he didn't stop and headed to the library.

When Hermione came back to her senses, she saw Arthur's back disappearing around the corner of the hall and quickly followed him.

"Arthur! Wait up, I also want to go to the library!"

...

Days went by, and it was another potions class.

As usual, Professor Snape still bother Harry Potter because he made a potion ineffective. Then, he declared the class was over, feeling satisfied with himself.

After the incident with the troll, Professor Snape asked Arthur to follow him to his office after class so Arthur didn't leave with Harry and the others.

Professor Snape gave Arthur a cold glance, gestured for him to follow, and then walked out of the classroom towards his office.