Chapter 18.

  With the Easter holidays over, the final exams have arrived.

  A week after the exams, the results were posted on the bulletin boards of all houses. Soren achieved excellent grades in the exams for Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, and History of Magid performed well in other subjects too; Draco, Daphne, and Meredith also did quite well.

  The Gryffindor students, oher hand, did signifitly worse. Aside from Hermiohe true academic powerhouse, Harry and Ron's performances could only be described as mediocre, while Neville and Seamus fared worse, with grades that were simply dismal.

  Overall, Soren topped the grade, with Hermione in sed pce, Meredith in third, a Ravencw girl named Mory in fourth, Daphne in fifth, and Dra sixth. This thrilled the Slytherin students, while Gryffindor, who usually had a poor retionship with Slytherin, became the subjeockery from other houses, sinking into gloom.

  Soren, Hermione, and Meredith were all well-rouudents excelling in both written and practical exams; Daphne leaned more towards practical subjects, perf well in Charms and Transfiguration, but her grades in History of Magic, Astronomy, and Herbology pulled her overall score down.

  Draco articurly talented in Potions, achieving full marks in that subject, and also did well in Charms and Transfiguration, nding him in sixth pce. He couldn't stop boasting to Nott, Bise, Goyle, and Crabbe.

  The trio of Harry did not dwell for too long on their exam results. Before the results were annouhey somehow discovered that Professor Snape's behavior was suspicious, leading to the clusion that he inteo steal the Philosopher's Stone.

  One night, they secretly snuto the forbidden area of the fourth-floor corridor, only to find a pool of blood on the floor and the corpse of a three-headed dog—this firmed their suspi that Professor Snape had ehe locatiohe Philosopher's Stone was kept.

  They overcame the challenges of the Devil's She flying keys, and the giant chessboard. Ron was knocked out during the chess challenge, leaving Harry and Hermioo tihey first circumvehe body of a troll before fag Snape's logic puzzle challenge. Hermione quickly deduced the effects of all the potions, and Harry sent her back to inform others while he drank the potion that could help him pass through the bck fmes.

  I room, Harry entered Quirrell, who was gazing tinually into the Mirror of Erised.

  Just like in the inal plot, Quirrell revealed Voldemort's true face, which was frightening and grotesque—a chalk-white face with glowing red eyes and long snake-like nostrils.

  Voldemort used Harry to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone from the Mirror of Erised. Just as Harry was about to rush toward the dulfed in bck fmes, Quirrell grabbed Harry's hand, only to be repelled by the power left behind by Harry's mother.

  Harry's excellent adaptability emerged at this moment. Without fear, he rushed towards Quirrell and touched his skin. As they struggled, Harry fell into a three-day a, while Quirrell met a tragid.

  When Harry woke up, he was weled by the end-of-year feast. During the feast, Dumbledore awarded Ron 50 points, Hermione 50 points, and Harry 60 points, finally giving Neville an additional 10 points, allowing Gryffindor to stage a eback.

  The Gryffindor table erupted with thunderous cheers, while the Slytherin table was filled with disappoi and frustration. Head of House Gemma Farley trembled with anger, seemingly on the verge of tears, while a deeply resentful Draco repeated curses, loudly prog that his father was on the Hogwarts Board of Governors and would seek justice for Slytherin.

  Soren remained calm; to him, the House Cup was insequential, as his vision and ambitioended far beyond it!

  Initially, Daphne and Meredith were also looking displeased, believing that Dumbledore's as were unfair—Soreing a troll and saving a cssmate was worth only 20 points, while Ron's chess game and Hermione's logic puzzle could earn the house 50 points! However, upon seeing Soren's uurbed expression and recalling their previous adventurous experiehey suddenly dispyed an uanding expression.

  Soren saw the expressions of the two girls and revealed a satisfied smile, "I'm gd you calm down your emotions so quickly. Remember, the Academy Cup is just a distra; it brings us no true honor and produo real value. It ot be eaten or exged for money."

  At this point, both girls couldn't help but chuckle, and Soren poio his own head, seriously tinuing, "What truly matters is how muowledge we gain here and how much our strength increases; only these are of real value."

  His words made the two girls fully vinced, even Draco, Pansy, and others nearby listened with i. What Soreo himself and did not say was: the biggest be from this upheaval—the Philosopher's Stone—has already fallen into my hands. The Academy Cup? Whoever likes it take it!

  After the ba ended, students from various houses began to disperse.

  Just as Soren was about to return to his dormitory, Professonagall stopped him, looking a bit puzzled. "Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you in his office, Mr. Malfoy. It seems to be about some questiarding the final exams."

  "Okay, I uand, Professonagall," Soren nodded.

  "By the way, the password for the Headmaster's office is 'Cockroach Cluster.'" Although Professonagall does not particurly favor Slytherin, Soren's outstanding performahroughout the semester—excellent studies, steady demeanor, humility, and politeness—had made her genuinely fond of this remarkable student, treating him as her proud pupil.

  Professonagall was both satisfied and hopeful about Soren's performa this moment, she looked at him and carefully phrased, "Alsarding the house Cup, I hope you don't feel that the school has acted unfairly and develop ament towards the school. I have very high hopes for you, Soren. You are the most taleudent I have ever seen."

  Hearing Professonagall, who usually rarely smiles, kindly call him Soren instead of "Mr. Malfoy," warmed his heart. He nodded, "I uand, Professor. You rest assured!"

  Hogwarts Headmaster's Office.

  It acious, beautiful circur room, with numerous windoortraits of past Hogwarts headmasters hanging on the walls, all of whom were gently sn in their frames.

  On some slender-legged tables in the office were various silver instruments, making all kinds of funny little sounds as they buzzed and spun oables, emitting smoke. Dumbledore's pet—a phoenix named Fawkes with bright red feathers and a golden tail—erched on a high gilded perch behind the door, while the S Hat y crumpled on a shelf o the desk.

  To his surprise, there was already a guest in the room.

  It was a stylishly dressed old man, his face lined with wrinkles, his hair pletely white, and a beard lohan Dumbledore's, yet he looked very vibrant, with a youthful spirit.

  But what was more hy was that this old man was wearing a fitted wizard's robe from the test colle of an upscale boutique, radiating subtle magical fluctuations; even with Soren's rudimentary alchemical knowledge, he could see that the robe was imbued with at least 50 kinds of magic, making it invaluable.

  "Hello, Professor Dumbledore. Hello, sir," Soren said politely to the two elderly men.

  He noticed that the stylishly dressed old man was looking at him with i. The old man smiled and introduced himself, "Hello, young friend. Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Niel."

  Even with Soren's mi, he couldn't help but be momentarily stunned upon hearing the old man's name.

  Niel smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, young friend. I'm here because of the Philosopher's Stone. I had entrusted it to Dumbledore for safekeeping, but for some reason, it was lost at Hogwarts. So Dumbledore had me do a crystal ball reading regarding the stone, and to my surprise, your image appeared in the crystal ball. That's why I hurried to Hogwarts; I just wao meet you, nothing else."

  Ah! Truly a fw in the pn!

  Soren had prepared so much for the Philosopher's Sto pletely fot that such reverse-predictive ability as divinatioed in the magical world—of course, it was easy to overlook this, as divination requires a siderable bloodlialent. As a result, true "seers" are quite rare, and unfortunately, Niel happeo be one of them.

  Knowing he couldn't hide anything from the two elderly men before him, Soren decided to y everything oable.

  Save a wry smile and said, "Mr. Fmel's divination skills are indeed impressive, and I have learned a lot from it. I don't want to indulge in false pretenses here. The Philosopher's Stone is indeed with me. During the Easter holiday, I trespassed into the forbidden area of the fourth-floor corridor, breaking through various obstacles, and ultimately obtained a stone from a mirror. At first, I didn't realize it was the infamous Philosopher's Stone, but out of my personal mischief, I created a terfeit and pced it in that mirror. Later, after sulting numerous books and resources, I learhat this stone is the Philosopher's Stone. I have some knowledge of alchemy, and seeing this legendary representation of the pinnacle of alchemy naturally thrilled me. I hoped to gain knowledge of alchemy from this stone; even more, I hoped that one day I could create my own Philosopher's Stone using my own abilities!"

  After finishing this statement, Soren raised his head and iently met Dumbledore's profound gaze behind his half-moon gsses. Suddenly, an indescribable strange feeling arose in Soren's heart, and his mind briefly fell into a daze. In an instant, Soren's gaze returo crity—Dumbledore's Legilimency!

  As Soren regained his senses, he ched his fists tightly, and the fmes of anger burned in his chest. He resolutely cast a Occlumency spell, forcefully expelling Dumbledore's mental presence!

  His gaze turned cold, and his tone no longer carried respect as he said indifferently, "Professor Dumbledore, is it really appropriate to invade someone else's thoughts without their sent, especially when that person is your student?"

  "Cough, cough, you actually learhe mind-blog spell." Dumbledore said somewhat awkwardly, adjusting his gsses.

  Seeing that the atmosphere was off, Niel hurriedly intervened, "Young one from the Malfoy family—I'll still call you Soren— I hope you don't misuand your headmaster. Because this involves serious matters like the Philosopher's Stone, although his aay seem improper to me, he has his own reasons for doing so."

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