Chương 23: •The Philosopher's Stone Part 1
After what happened at Extimum's birthday party that day, the relationships between those involved changed very subtly, Draco and Ron pretended that such a thing had not happened, ignoring what happened was their best way out, although they still shared strange looks between each other, They simply did not agree with the idea of having acted like great friends that day. The girls were a little shy about this topic, if the men said strange things, then they were not the exception, of course, given their age the comments could be more common, but there were no inhibitions in anything they said and so it was they spoke many truths frankly, however, over time they put it aside, even if the event sowed some seeds with some thoughts on them, the perfect example of this was Pansy and Neville, she was staring at him for days every time she found him, she forget to even tease him, Neville must have been very capable with his words that day so that he could leave her with such a look for days, Harry on the other hand got a new fame among some freshmen, some silent rumors and among few they ran About his ability with women, the innuendo was more innocent, but the older students who heard him didn't think exactly the same.
The Potion did not really have such a strong effect, otherwise it would be almost a 'veritaserum', its effects were more a coincidence of the combination of several aspects: the low resistance of the body of 11-12 year old children to such a potion, the lack of a strong mentality to resist the effects and not say what you would not normally say and of course the most important touch, the potion was a failed potion. Since Tonks was also greatly affected, she found out with the student who gave it to her and knew that he himself did not know how he had done it, it was actually a failed potion, the original would have similar effects, but not so strong and crazy.
On the other hand, the classes continued naturally during the following months, Extimum continued investigating his project for the business and he already had a base, he only needed a few more considerations and test it to see if it was feasible, although he only had a basic model, but if it worked he could sell a magical remodeling service, his studies on space had also improved, however, he lacked a lot of general knowledge to get a real profit and apply what he learned to spells that anyone could use, although he made advances, most of its results were more to test the utility because they were incredibly complex and exhausting to perform, basically, if you were not an expert on the subject you could not do the spell and on the contrary you could end up exploding.
Extimum had spent time getting to know and improving his relationship with his new acquaintances such as Tonks, Padma, and Pavarti. His friendship with Draco had improved, after what happened at that party, Draco seemed to have lost much of his usual arrogance, he was still a strong opponent and hostile towards Harry and his group, but Extimum noticed that his attitude as such was less Contemptuously, Draco also started paying attention to Hermione who had joined Harry's group, but since he saw that she was very close to Extimum he was careful and chose to ignore her for the most part.
A funny thing was Pansy, although she was still a follower of Draco, but she seemed to have reduced her fanaticism, Oh, and Extimum was pretty sure why, but we'll tell about that later.
Harry played some games of Quidditch and Extimum was gaining more and more points for his house, Ravenclaw being the first followed by Slytherin, maybe it was possible to defeat Gryffindor who was in 3 place?, It would be necessary to see if Dumbledore has nothing to say .
Speaking of the teachers, they didn't seem to have spoken out or interrupted in any of the activities from before, they seemed to have their attention mainly on the older students who were more unruly, after all, you wouldn't expect 11-year-olds to go around playing with a cerberus or spying on a mass murderer, you wouldn't believe it right?
As time passed, it was inevitable that the final exams would come, Ron's worst nightmare and only a temporary refresher for Extimum, until they did not reach 4 years, Extimum would not have to worry about actually studying.
.
Extimum was sitting at the desk in his private room, he was playing with the prototype of his business project, the functionality was almost implemented, a few more days and he could try to make it really work.
While he was at it, a token on his desk lit up and vibrated a bit.
Extimum: "Oh, does anyone want to see me right now?" Extimum had already had his exams in the morning, as they were extensive exams, there were no classes or exams in the afternoon, giving him time to improve his prototype, so he hoped that everyone was resting or studying for the tests that were still missing.
The token on his desk was one of his first inventions while studying runes, it was a kind of doorbell, since his room only granted access to him or whoever he allowed and did not have a real door to enter, he installed two tokens that would resonate and send a signal to the other if it was activated with magic, one was naturally next to the secret entrance and the other kept her inside her room. Since it was ringing it meant that someone was outside and calling you.
Leaving the things she works with on the desk, she put on her coat and left the room.
As he walked out of his room, he could see Trudor standing by the entrance.
Trudor leaned out to try to see inside, but the access hall was dark.
Trudor: "friend, when you come out of a dark corridor with your impassive countenance, it almost seems that you are an evil wizard coming out of his cave."
Extimum: "stop talking nonsense, what's up?"
Trudor: "hehe, when you let me look at what you're hiding there, ahem, well, Harry, Ron and Hermione are outside the common room, they seemed a bit upset and asked me to call you." Trudor was rambling again, but when he saw Extimum's gaze, he said directly why he had come.
Extimum: "Well, I'll go now, if you want you can enter my cave, but make sure you don't touch anything, lest you end up as a subject for my evil experiments."
Trudor: "** Gulp **". Trudor couldn't help but swallow when he heard it.
Although Extimum said it jokingly, but since he almost always kept his face stoic, if he did not deliberately show any emotion, you would feel that he meant it.
Trudor. " Ah, I'll see it when you want to show it to all of us, right now I remembered that I had something to do, bye ".
Extimum: "Hmp, even if you get caught by something there, you wouldn't suffer too much." Extimum muttered as he made his way out of the common room.
Trudor: 'uff, I really escaped from something in there'. Trudor sighed as he walked away, Extimum's murmur audible to him.
Extimum actually did have some traps, but they weren't deadly and they were just jokes, like being hit by something or suffering a tickle or itch attack, they weren't really dangerous, at most you could pass out and they would only activate if you touched some of their important things.
...
As he left the common room, he encountered Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were milling around while waiting for him. Seeing him leave, they pushed it away a bit and spoke to him.
Harry: "Extimum, you finally came out, we discovered something and we wanted to tell you about it."
Ron: "we discovered that it is likely that Quirrell really wants to steal the stone."
Harry: "Yes, when we finished doing the exams, something occurred to me that we had not noticed, when we followed Quirrell we saw him cover himself with a cape and visit some places until he managed to sneak away, but one of those places where that we saw him go was the same bar that Hagrid went to ".
Extimum: "and then?".
Ron: "That the person who gave the dragon egg to Hagrid was Quirrell and apparently he was interested in the cerberus and Hagrid told him about it."
Hermione: "That makes it very possible that he gave him the egg just to try to get information out of it and he already know what the defenses are to access the philosopher's stone."
Harry: "We also went to tell Professor McGonagall and she said that Dumbledore had left Hogwarts, which makes it too coincidental."
Hermione: "Yes, he must have found a way to make Dumbledore leave the castle and he should only wait for the time when the teachers are busy to act."
Harry: "We have to stop him, we can't allow him to get the stone, besides, he probably already knows how to get past all the defenses and how to get to it."
Extimum: "and how exactly do you plan to defeat Quirrell?"
Harry: "... we just have to get the stone before he gets it and wait for Dumbledore to come back". Harry thought a bit more when he heard her question, in fact they hadn't thought that far since their minds only had the thought that Quirrell would get the Philosopher's Stone.
Extimum: 'that "plan" doesn't sound reliable at all'.
Ron: "You will come with us right?"
Extimum: 'sigh, I really would rather not go, Harry can do it himself and try to go further it could only mean that something changed and that would not be good, on the other hand, I could try to bring a teacher to the place, although they wouldn't believe me, but if I just bring them ... it might work, but I don't think a direct confrontation between a professor and Quirrell ends better than Harry just touching him to the ashes, and on the contrary something could go wrong; I also don't think Voldemort will let me attack him by surprise, he must already be a bit wary of me after I could physically hurt him last time and I'm not so arrogant to think that I can currently beat him ... well this will be a promise to myself, I'll just interfere this time because I've already gotten into this, but just to make sure everything goes smoothly, I'm not going to get into all these conspiracies again unless it's completely necessary. '
Extimum: "sure, when will we go?"
Harry: "We plan to go tonight, we can't delay it."
Extimum: "Good."
Hermione: "we will meet here at the entrance of the Ravenclaw tower."
Extimum: 'I'll have to think about security measures.'
.
Extimum returned to his room, he had to think of methods to reach the stone that were safer. The safety to get to the stone could not be as simple as it seemed, it should be more dangerous and it is likely that it did not stick to what it remembered from the movie but rather to the books that were more realistic, moreover, since they were made to protect, they should not be simple games.
Extimum: 'I only have a vague idea what testing could really look like, but I should prepare certain countermeasures.'
Extimum drew his wooden sword from his bag, gave him a long look, and then took out his wand and pointed it at the wooden sword.
Extimum: 'let's hope it works'. Next, Extimum cast various enchantments to give him more durability and a bit of edge, although a wooden sword is probably not much use, but he could use it to defend himself in the last stay against physical attacks.
Extimum also prepared various protective amulets, they were weak, but could help, he also prepared some potions to stop poisons or bleeding.
.
It was already night when Extimum left the Ravenclaw tower, they were due to meet at approximately 8:30 pm.
Extimum: 'I hope everything goes well'. However, Extimum had to wait 10 minutes longer than expected.
Extimum: 'hasn't something unexpected happened, has it?' To his relief he could feel a presence approaching him some time later.
As he waited for them to get closer, Extimum looked directly where he felt they were, he couldn't see them, but through his senses, his mind seemed to be able to reconstruct a vague image, his hearing gave him a spatial perspective, his scent gave him the exact position of Each one, his emotions colored his silhouettes and his imagination assimilated them with who he believed each corresponded, his eyes on the other hand, although they were quite good, they did not allow him to see them, but he could vaguely see random distortions if he concentrated on one point for a moment , it would not help you to detect someone invisible if you did not know their position.
When they were already in front of him, they stopped and then ...
Ron: "Buu". Ron raised his cloak and jerked around trying to scare him.
Extimum: "…". Extimum just gave him a blank look.
Ron: "Come on, How could you not be scared with that?, we clearly came out of nowhere."
Harry: "Maybe ... was he expecting us?"
Ron: "what? That's impossible."
Hermione: "But his gaze was clearly on us from before we got closer, didn't you see it? Can you really tell where we were?". Did Hermione seem particularly aware of his eyes or was she just more detailed?
Extimum: "I can't see them ... not at least with my eyes, but I can perceive them."
Ron: "Are you sure you're not the son of a supernatural being?"
Extimum: "not that I know of."
Harry: "Okay, let's not waste any more time and let's go."
Extimum covered himself with his illusion and followed them on their way to the third floor, although since they were all invisible, it was more like they all went to the place and knew they were going together.
Extimum: "by the way, why did they delay?"
Ron: "huh, Neville didn't want to let us out, and Hermione tried to petrify him, but he seemed much more attentive and managed to dodge him, we had to try a few more times, he looked a little pale, I don't think he has slept much lately, maybe did the nerves make him more sensitive?
Extimum: "Shouldn't I take some calming potion?"
Ron: "He's taking them, it's just that He've taken so many in the last few months that they no longer have as much effect on him and He had to stop taking them for a while".
Hermione: "You should talk to Pansy, At this rate, Neville will not be able to be calm, although perhaps now if he is a little now… ".
Although Neville was concerned about Pansy, it was not his only concern, exams also took up a lot of break time for some students.
Ron: "that's evil."
Hermione: "Do you also want to be bewitched?"
Ron: "wickedly cool." Ron hastily corrected
.
Upon reaching the door to enter the room where Fluffy is, everyone stopped and breathed deeply encouraging each other.
Harry: "Well, it's time to go in." Harry took off his cloak, it would not serve them against Fluffy because he could feel them even if he did not see them and given their large size it would not work very well, Extimum also undid his illusion.
Hermione: "Alohomora". Hermione pointed her wand and cast the spell to open the door.
Hermione: "let's go in."
They all went through the door again into the room a little dark.
Fluffy was sitting in the middle of the room, one of his three heads was asleep, another was drowsy and the last one had an annoyed look as he changed his gaze from a destroyed harp in the near corner, to the 4 invaders.
** Wow **
Its central head which was awake let out a loud bark, curiously its bark did not seem to wake up the other two heads.
Ron: "ahhh, he's clearly angry."
Harry: "but look, there is a harp there, that means that Quirrell must have come already, besides, two of his heads are asleep".
Ron: "Come on Harry, use the flute before he gets close."
Harry: "yes". Harry took out a flute from his pocket, Hagrid had given it to him for Christmas and had practiced a bit with it, he planned to use it to put the cerberus to sleep after hearing Hagrid say his weakness.
The four of them had already discussed how to pass the cerberus before arriving here, although they did not expect the situation to be different than they expected.
** Fiu ~~~ **
The cerberus seemed to stop his movement and his anger as soon as he heard the sound, but he still kept his gaze fixed on them and after a pause he got closer.
Ron: "it's not working completely."
Hermione: "ah, I don't know, It should just fall asleep to the music."
Extimum seeing that the cerberus did not seem totally willing to give in, he released his aura sending feelings of calm and laziness. The effect was quite clear as the cerberus' previously slow steps seemed to slow down more and his eyes seemed to close longer when he blinked.
** Fiu ~~~ **
Ron: "It's slowing down, but it's still coming this way." Although the room was not that big, but the cerberus also did not walk too fast, from the beginning it seemed sleepy, its steps were slow, in fact, one of its heads had even already fallen asleep by the time the music played.
** Bam **
The cerberus fell asleep a few inches from them.
Harry: "that ... was close, I was getting tired of playing the flute."
Extimum: "let's not waste any more time, let's go." It wasn't exhausting for Extimum to manipulate his aura, it was quite natural, although if he tried to force it too much it could be a bit mentally exhausting.
After stepping over Fluffy, they reached the hatch that had been completely uncovered due to Fluffy falling asleep further ahead of the hatch, only his tail seemed to be close but pointed in another direction.
Ron opened it and looked at what looked like a dark void.
Ron: "Let's hope it's not too deep."
Harry: "I'll go first."
Extimum: 'there are already several divergences, I don't even know how things will be down there'. After thinking this far, he said nothing and immediately jumped after Harry.
Shortly after Extimum, Hermione and Ron also jumped.
While descending through the hole, the place became a little clearer, there were some plants that worked as lights, they did not shine much, but they gave minimal visibility for those who did not have night vision.
** ahh **
Harry's scream could be heard as he fell, he was a few meters from Extimum, the fall seemed deeper than expected.
As they approached what looked like a web of plants, Extimum felt a sudden sign of danger.
Stepping into the air, he pushed his body to the left and dodged what looked like a vine, he had approached him taking advantage of the shadows and since Extimum was preparing for the fall he had not seen her.
Extimum: 'Damn'. Looking around, the room was clearly a plant trap, there was a net below, but on the walls were thousands of the plants that had attacked Extimum.
Extimum: "Everyone, be careful with the plants on the walls."
All of this seemed to take a long time, but it actually happened in the few seconds in which they fell.
Extimum extended two of his tails and reached out to grab Ron's and Hermione's waists that fell higher than him.
Ron: "ah, something grabbed me."
Extimum: "calm down, that was me."
With a little effort Extimum drew them towards him and, stepping on the air, he propelled himself directly downwards, those plants on the walls did not seem only to want to entangle them, some seemed capable enough to pierce them.
As they swooped down, a plant grazed Ron' arm and another ripped a piece of Hermione's shirt.
** puff **
In the end, they fell on the web of plants that were surprisingly soft so that the fall did not hurt.
Harry: "Are they okay?" Harry seemed completely unscathed, it seemed that the plants had not noticed him, perhaps it was his entrance that drew attention to Extimum and the others who came after.
Ron: "ugh, yeah, lucky these plants were here to land, although some of the ones up there scratched me a bit, but Extimum saved me, otherwise they could have impaled me ...". Ron said as he slowly got up.
Hermione: "I'm fine too, they just ripped my shirt a bit."
Extimum: "well, let's not waste time, these plants are dangerous and the one we are standing on is no different, we need fire-".
Harry: "Ah!"
Hermione: "Ahh !!!"
Ron: "Help !!!"
Before Extimum could go on and draw his wand, the vines they were on moved and shot out from all sides, trapping them.
Harry was pulled straight down by his feet leaving half his body out, Hermione was turned upside down, the vines grabbed her feet and lifted her up, Ron was grabbed by her hands and feet and lifted off the ground, Extimum on the other hand, seemed to have been considerate As the biggest threat from plants, her whole body was pulled away and then her feet sank down to her ankles and her arms were grabbed back, another plant even covered her mouth. The devil's snare seemed more dangerous and intelligent than the books described it.
Ron: "ahh, get me out of here."
Hermione: "stay put or It'll kill you more faster." Although Hermione said so, but her panic was not minor, not when you are literally on your head and you feel like the vines are sliding down your skin trying to wrap you around and squeeze you tight.
Ron: "Will it kill me faster? Oh, now I'll relax." Ron said sarcastically as his nerves only grew.
Harry: "Extimum seemed to want to say something of fire, think of something quickly, Extimum is being heavily attacked by the vines, I can hardly see it anymore."
Harry was also not well, the vines seemed to want to engulf and suffocate their victims, given that Harry was still, he was not that aggressive, but he was still tightly clenched and wrapped at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Hermione: "It's the devil's lasso, they like the dark and the humidity."
Harry: "Then light a fire." Harry couldn't do it himself because his wand was in his pants and that part of his body was buried in the vines.
Hermione: "Yes ... of course ... but I don't have wood!" panic and growing nervousness had nullified Hermione's ability to think properly.
Ron: "Have you gone crazy? Are you a witch or not?" Ron yelled
Hermione: "Oh, it's true!"
While they argued, Extimum was in a slightly more complicated situation, thanks to his strength, breaking a few vines was not difficult, but his attacks were even more intense, his tails could hold them, but they could not cut them and although he could draw his wand from his hand once it broke free, but the vines seemed to have isolated him in a semi-dome, if he cast a spell with such a distance, it was sure to burn too, so he could only hold out and hope they could cast rapid fire .
Extimum: "Merlin, what happens to these creepers, this is clearly not normal, even if they fight harder, they should not be so smart and much less able to regenerate in this crazy way, what the hell did Professor Sprout feed them with, if not they can get me out of here, I'll risk throwing fire on me ".
-
Hermione: "Incendio!" Being the only one with her hands free, the wand easily accessible and still having enough mobility and space, Hermione cast the spell to the center of the room.
A red flame was lit in the middle of the room.
** screek **
The vines twisted and quickly moved away from their position, however, the spell only helped Hermione who fell head first into the plants and Ron who was closer to the spell and was completely released, Harry and Extimum on the other hand did not. It was also. Harry was pulled along with the receding vines and had almost been swallowed completely, Extimum only got a slight respite due to being further away.
Extimum: 'f*ck these plants'.
Extimum: "Ahh!"
Extimum screamed and expanded an energy field as hard as he could outward and when he couldn't take it anymore, he pointed his wand and cast his spell, while releasing the energy field.
Extimum "Fire!".
** screek **
A large fireball appeared in front of Extimum, the fireball collided with the vines that were thrown again trying to catch Extimum and were incinerated, the surrounding ones quickly moved away or were also consumed by the fire.
The fireball quickly made its way to where Harry was under Extimum's command.
Extimum: "sigh, damn, that was exhausting."
The vines let Harry go when they felt the heat, as they moved away, they left a large hole through which Harry was sinking showing that there was another room below.
Extimum: "Harry, get out of there."
Harry: "ugh, I feel like I want to puke after being squeezed like that".
Hermione: "That was really close, ugh, I don't want to go through something like that again."
Ron: "yeah, let's get down fast, I want to stay away from these vines as much as I can."
With unanimous agreement, they all jumped and landed on the floor below after completely clearing the path with fire, the fall was not high so they landed well.
Extimum: "let's rest here for a moment, we can't continue if we're tired."
Everyone: " alright".
Although the fight against the devil's lasso had not lasted too long, but even if it had been short, it was a desperate fight against the creepers that gave no rest in their attacks.
...
After resting for a few minutes, they continued, down a few corridors and after crossing a door, they entered a spacious and mostly empty room, in the ceiling there was a window that allowed the moonlight to illuminate the room and in at the other end of the room, there was another closed door.
** srrr **
There was a strange sound as they entered, they seemed like continuous rapid flapping.
Hermione: "How curious, I have never seen that kind of bird."
Harry: "They are not birds, they are keys."
Extimum: "and they will be one more annoyance."
Harry: "One of them is likely to open that door." Harry said while pointing to a door.
They had all been looking around until Ron pointed to a broom that was suspended in the air in the middle of the room.
Ron: "Look, a broom and it's floating."
Hermione: "ugh, and now what will we do?, there must be hundreds of keys."
Ron: "let me try to open the door first." Ron walked over to the door that would allow them to move forward and pointed his wand at her.
Ron: "Alohomora". However, the door did not respond, it seemed to be enchanted by the counter spell.
Ron: "well, I had to try ... to open it it had to be an old key, rusty like the door handle".
Extimum on the other hand, he was thinking of two ways he could try to open the door, the first was to force the door and the other was to catch the key without flying on the broom, both were not without unexpected reactions, but he was wary of just go for the key with the broom.
Harry: "there, there it is, the one with the broken wing, but ... I don't think it's that simple."
Ron: "Go ahead Harry, if Quirrell was able to get it, you can too, you're a star player."
Harry took courage from his words and was about to take the broom when Extimum stopped his hand.
Extimum: "Wait, we both know that wouldn't end very well, let me try something first." Extimum said so, because as Harry reached his hand closer to the broom the keys seemed to get faster and more aggressive.
Harry: "Good." Harry withdrew his hand and waited.
Extimum looked at the fat key and with the broken wing, he concentrated on it and directed all his magic to enclose it.
The moment the key stopped, the previously noisy room fell silent.
Extimum wasted no time and pulled her towards his hand, however, as he approached, the room seemed to transform, the light dimmed, the walls seemed to move and the previously static keys moved quickly in a frenzy heading not only towards Extimum who had just finished take the key, rather it was towards everyone.
Extimum: "Quick run. and take the key ". Extimum passed the key to Harry next to him and together they ran to the door.
As they ran towards the door, the room grew darker and darker, so dark that the door they came through was no longer visible, it seemed to have melted into the darkness.
The keys on the other hand had a slight flickering glow, which made them difficult to perceive as they appeared and disappeared in the enveloping darkness.
Ron: "the darkness is getting closer."
Hermione: "Ron, make room for Harry to open the door."
Harry made it to the door, but at the same time the keys reached them, the keys were already close to impaling Hermione and Ron who were at Harry's sides.
Extimum turned around at the last minute and expanded a force field around him.
** tras plum paf **
The keys were quickly threaded into the barrier filling everyone's sight and the fastest ones even managed to slightly pierce the barriers, however, they were all stopped.
Ron: "Quick Harry."
Harry: "the door won't open! It must be because we didn't take it with the broom".
Extimum: "What?" Extimum already had some beads of sweat on his forehead resisting the constant attacks of the flying keys, since the attacks did not come in one direction but were all spread out, they generated a greater oppression in all directions even if it was not so strong.
Extimum: 'Damn, these tests want me to play by their rules, but I'm not here to play'.
Extimum turned his gaze slightly and pointed his wand at the door.
Extimum: "get away Harry."
Extimum: "Open up- Portaberto!" Extimum yelled his spell in the direction of the door. At first he was going to cast the 'Open sesame' spell in his frustration, but he remembered at the last second that such a spell will destroy the door and he quickly changed the spell.
Immediately following Extimum's spell, the lock on the door seemed to melt and fall, leaving a gap where it had been.
Hermione: "Quick, come in."
Harry, Ron and Hermione pushed open the door and entered quickly, turning to see Extimum, they noticed the situation on the other side.
Everything beyond the Extimum barrier had faded into darkness and only the keys that were still blinking buried in the barrier were visible and the slight glow of the barrier itself, furthermore, a bit of that darkness threatened to seep into the barrier.
Extimum was still concentrating on holding the barrier, his palms were sweating a bit, seeing that they crossed the door, he pointed his free hand towards the barrier and yelled.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Zeroz7
Zeroz7 I know that many had told me not to follow the trio because they did not want a babysitter, but at least in this first year I will, to establish a good union certain events are necessary, also, it would be strange if you only leave your friends to chance When you are aware of the situation, in the future Extimum will try to avoid following them and instead there will be events that will change or interfere in really necessary situations.
With all that said, I took a more dangerous approach to the tests, I mean even if they were dangerous but their level of danger was quite low to be defenses that their creators should be able to pass easily, don't you think? So they will be different in some things .
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