Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Lowering the trap door (Edited)
The moment Quirrell entered the corridor, Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. He said to Professor McGonagall, "Minerva, I believe you have class in the morning."
Professor McGonagall replied, "Indeed, but never mind, I may be late-"
"That's not going to work!" Fudge immediately put on a look of distress, "We can't afford to harm the children, Transfiguration is a very important lesson, Minerva, hurry up and go to class while I discuss unicorn poaching with Professor Dumbledore."
"Go to your classes too, boy, and study hard for a job at the Ministry of Magic: if you have good grades, you could get into the Ministry of Magic!". Fudge urged Tom before leaving.
After talking to Tom, he left as quickly as he could with his subordinates and Dumbledore, who needed to go to the Ministry of Magic.
A butterfly flew out the window and landed on Professor McGonagall's hand, turning into a note with a message that read: Take Tom to that place, now!
Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows and immediately chased Tom back to where he had gone, then stopped him just before he reached the Ravenclaw Common Room, where he was talking to Hermione.
"Tom, come with me at once." As soon as they met, Professor McGonagall said involuntarily, dragged Tom away and left.
Hermione tried to follow, but Professor McGonagall glared at her and shooed her away; Hermione was terrified of Professor McGonagall.
Tom pleaded with Professor McGonagall, "Professor, just a minute, let me go back to my dorm..." he had a good idea what he was going to do, but he still had his Uzi in his dorm! This had caught him off guard and left him without a way out. But you can't blame Tom, who carries a machine gun when they go to breakfast?
But he touched the kettle in his pocket and felt safe again.
"No, it's too late." Professor McGonagall turned him away without looking back and instead quickened her pace.
Suddenly aware of something, Tom asked tentatively, "Professor, are you..."
"Albus asked me to accompany you to fetch an important object, he said you were more familiar with the level." As they spoke, the two had reached the closed corridor on the third floor.
Professor McGonagall opened the door with a gentle push, which changed her expression: she had locked the door before leaving.
She walked over to the trapdoor and said to Tom, "Jump!"
She expected Tom to squirm and not dare to jump, but he did so without complaint. The air inside the trapdoor was damp and cold, and Tom fell for a long time before he landed on a soft mass, looked at the trapdoor directly over his head, which was now the size of a postage stamp.
It would have been easy to figure out how far he was from the ground, simply by knowing the size of the trap door, and from the size of the "postage stamp", approximate the distance, but Tom had no such idea.
Professor McGonagall jumped as well, and the moment she was on her feet, she whipped out her wand, "(Fire)!"
The flames scared away the vegetation below them.
"Devil's snare, it likes dark and damp conditions, but it's afraid of fire." He looked at Tom, "Professor Sprout should have taught you that in class, but you've been dithering, doing nothing."
"Professor, if you had taken action, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to talk to me now." Tom was speechless: how could he not know it was the Devil's Snare? It's because you haven't jumped yet!
Professor McGonagall fell silent and then cast the spell (Lumos) to illuminate her surroundings. Below the trapdoor was a passageway, and at the bottom of the passageway was a room full of the Devil's Snare, a plant that was, in fact, quite deadly. If you didn't pay attention in herbalism class when you were a kid, even adult witches would have had to suffer here.
The exit from the room is also a long passage,
The walls of the passage are covered with moss. The passage, which did not lead downwards, was long, narrow and winding, and must have been reserved when Hogwarts was built, leading to the "subway chambers" of Hogwarts.
The professors were conscientious enough not to set any traps in the passage, and Quirrell was in such a hurry to leave that he didn't set any traps. Tom could have devised a million of them. For example, the sides of the passage would be slowly picked out until the intruders were beaten to a pulp, or the trigger would be a flash of light followed by a flying arrow: A sudden flash of light in such gloomy surroundings would probably have blinded him, or simply a dumping of quicksand....
But there were no such traps, and Tom and Professor McGonagall reached the end of the passage safe and sound. At the end was a room with a large iron cage, in front of which were five square stones with petal patterns. Inside the cage were hundreds of tiny, jewel-like birds, jingling and flying. If you look closely, the birds transform into keys.
On the other side of the room was a wooden door with a lock.
Tom was surprised as he entered: how had Quirrell managed to speed through this level?
He had helped Dumbledore design this level and the idea was simple: place the square stones in order, so that the petals of each stone would light up in the same number, so that the lock on the cage could be opened and the key would fly out, and then use the flying broom to catch the corresponding key.
In theory, Quirrell should have been trapped here for a long time, but how had Quirrell managed to clear the cage by the time Tom and Professor McGonagall arrived? Tom looked at the bird in the cage and suddenly had an idea: hadn't Quirrell reached in to get the corresponding key and get out?
Seeing the hole in the cage and the density of the keys, Tom thought it could be done.
For a moment, Tom was speechless: Quirrell, this guy, really knows how to use bugs....
But he was going to solve the puzzle the old-fashioned way, after all, he knew the standard answer. And it was clear from Professor McGonagall's blank stare that she didn't know how to solve the puzzle.
The five stones were lined up, each with three petals, some light and some dark, and Tom's goal was to get the same number of petals on each stone; the number didn't matter, one, two, three, whatever.
From left to right, the number of petals illuminated was 1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 1. The pattern of the stones was simple: each time a stone was pricked, the number of petals changed, and so did the stones on either side. However, the leftmost and rightmost stones would only change with the one next to it.
Each time a stone is struck, one is added to the number of petals it has, but if all three are lit, only one will light.
Tom stepped forward, ready to solve the puzzle.
Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Quick Guide to the Philosopher's Stone Level (Edited)
First he struck in the center, causing the third stone to shift, and at that point the number of petals became 1, 3, 1, 1, 3, 1, then he struck once on the far left and once on the far right, causing both the left and right to shift, finally becoming a pattern of 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, and at that point anyone with a little common sense could see that striking the center stone, would cause all the stones to light up with two petals.
Tom solved the puzzle, the cage door creaked open and hundreds of keys came tumbling out, and Tom could clearly see that a large silver key had its wings dangling as if it had been grabbed roughly once.
Tom was about to make his move when he saw a shocking sight: Professor McGonagall leapt onto a flying broom in the corner of the room with a vigorous stance unbecoming of her age and status, and rose from the floor. Tom felt a flash of light before his eyes and the key was in Professor McGonagall's hands.
Tom: "!!!!"
Professor McGonagall looked at Tom, who was dumbfounded, and smiled, "I was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team when I was young."
Tom looked deeply at the teacher, who refreshed his knowledge, and opened the door.
Tom had made up his mind: this day, together with Professor McGonagall, they would defeat Quirrell!
Behind the door there was still a corridor, and after a few dozen steps Tom stepped forward, a circular room appeared before them, and he and Professor McGonagall were standing in the middle of it. In front of them was a statue of a strange-looking frog.
Professor McGonagall looked at it curiously.
The statue had a blue bead on its back and a red bead in its mouth. In front of the statue were circle-shaped grooves, like a mosquito spiral.
At the ends of the grooves a hole suddenly opened up, and from one of the grooves came beads of various colors. As far as Professor McGonagall could see, there were only four colors: red, yellow, blue, and green. The balls rolled slowly down the track.
She turned her attention to the source of the sound, which was Tom manipulating the frog. He directed the frog's mouth toward the slowly rolling balls, then tapped him on the buttocks and the frog spit the balls out of his mouth and put them in the ball queue.
If there are more than three balls of the same color, they will break and dissipate. The balls on the frog's back is the next ball he spits out, and with each shot, a new ball appears out of nowhere in the hollow of his back.
It took Tom less than a minute to clear the field of balls, throwing one after another.
Professor McGonagall: 'Σ(⊙▽⊙)!'
Now she suddenly understood why Dumbledore had asked her to make that frog: She and Dumbledore had set up the level together, she was responsible for Transforming the frog and the beads, and Dumbledore set the rules of the game.
But Professor McGonagall reflected for a moment, remembered the spell she had cast, and pulled out her wand: "(Bombarda)!"
"Boom!" there was an explosion, and the three beads left on the field were shattered by it. The whistle went out, and the small hole through which the ball had come out grew larger and larger until it took the shape of a door.
Tom: "..."
Why do these levels always leave some strange way to beat them?
Not only can you skip the actual levels that Tom suggested, but also the levels that Dumbledore originally designed! For example, the key level at the beginning, where Tom suspected the wooden door could be opened with a swipe, the chess level, which you could probably get through if you were fast enough, and Snape's fire, which Tom probably also had a way past.
So the most reliable, and toughest, is actually the troll left by Quirrell....
By the way, one of the three happens to be good at logical analysis, one good at chess, one talented at flying, and they all know how to deal with trolls, what a coincidence, right? And Sprout's Devil's Snare,
Wasn't it really meant to be a buffer? So that some three little wizards wouldn't be thrown to their deaths.
You can see from these levels that Dumbledore started the plan with the intention of exercising Harry with the Philosopher's Stone, and it's fair to say he probably had it in mind until today's intrusion by Quirrell. But plans don't change as quickly as they should, and with a maneuver by Quirrell, he was forced to abandon Potter's training program and send Professor McGonagall to solve the problem.
And what was Harry doing at the time?
"Neville, Ron, I think we need to keep Snape under surveillance all day... Yes, I know it's difficult, but we have to do what we can, preferably find crucial evidence, AND then expose him to Professor Dumbledore!"
Neville and Ron: "..."
In short, it's Snape! Spying on Snape!
And now, Tom and Professor McGonagall had reached the last level: beyond was the level designed by Dumbledore himself.
Professor McGonagall was a little uneasy: the intruder was moving too fast! She regretted not having increased the difficulty in the previous levels....
But then Tom said, "Professor Dumbledore's level is not that easy to beat, we can always rely on Professor Dumbledore."
The words cheered Professor McGonagall: Yes, when had Dumbledore ever let anyone down?
She concentrated, watching Snape's level. He had more or less learned the other professors' levels; after all, professors talked to each other. But he knew nothing about Snape's levels; he didn't talk to him more than three times a week, so how was he supposed to share his ideas about level design?
As he entered Snape's level, two flames rose from the entrance and exit of the room, blocking the way in and out. In Snape's room there was nothing but a table and five bottles, with a roll of parchment written next to it.
Professor McGonagall picked up the parchment and read what was written on it.
Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind.
Two of us want to help you, whichever one I find, one among us seven will let you go ahead.
Another will carry the one who drinks it back.
Two contain only nettle wine, three are deadly, Waiting hidden in line.
Take your pick, unless you'd rather stay forever, to help you in your choice, we give you four keys:
- First, no matter how clever the poison is at hiding you will always find some on the left side of the nettle wine;
- Second, the ones at the extremes are different, but if you want to move forward, none of them is your friend;
- Third, as you clearly see, we all have different sizes: neither the dwarf nor the giant keeps death inside;
- Fourth, the second on the left and the second on the right are twins, once you try them even though at first glance they are different.
"Logic puzzles..." whispered Professor McGonagall, then looked at Tom.
However, Tom didn't know either.
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