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Chapter 68: Double-edged person

After overcoming numerous dangers, Harry reached the final stage alone.

Ron had collapsed on Professor McGonagall's wizard chessboard, and Hermione had consumed one of the potions from the last stage to help revive the unconscious Ron. She also had the task of sending a message to Dumbledore and Professor Dracula, asking them to come and assist Harry.

Looking at the correct solution for the final stage, the smallest bottle, Harry took a deep breath.

"I'm coming." He turned to face the black flames and drank the liquid from the small bottle in one gulp.

The potion, cold as ice, instantly spread through his entire body.

He set the bottle down and walked towards the flames.

The black flames licked at Harry's body, but he felt nothing—soon, he made it to the other side and entered the final room.

...

Harry saw that Quirrell was standing in front of a grand, ornate mirror, fiddling with something.

He carefully hid under his invisibility cloak, intending to bypass Quirrell, retrieve the Sorcerer's Stone first according to their plan, and then quietly leave using the cloak.

"I can feel... he's coming... Harry Potter... the boy who lived..."

Before he had taken a few steps, Harry heard a low, raspy voice echo in the quiet room. The voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself, but Quirrell wasn't speaking!

Quirrell suddenly turned to look towards the door.

"Bind (Incarcerous)!"

As Quirrell spoke, several ropes materialized from thin air, covering half the room, and quickly found Harry's position.

In the next moment, Harry was tightly bound.

"Invisibility cloak, huh? Quite a rare item." Quirrell said with a laugh, walking over and removing Harry's cloak.

He was no longer stuttering or displaying his previous cowardice and repulsiveness. Instead, a chilling sneer replaced his demeanor.

"Hermione was right. Your entire act was just a facade!" Harry said, glaring at Quirrell.

"What a pity, I thought my performance was good enough." Quirrell said, his tone showing no hint of regret. "I didn't expect that not only Dumbledore and Dracula would suspect me, but even a first-year witch would pick up on it."

"What did you say?!" Harry asked in shock. "Dumbledore and Professor Dracula have already suspected you?"

He couldn't understand why, even though the headmaster and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor were suspicious of Quirrell, he had still been able to serve as a teaching assistant at Hogwarts for so long.

"Of course, they probably suspected me from the very beginning of the term." Quirrell sneered. "But they were too arrogant and presumptuous. They set a trap for me, trying to use me to draw out my master!"

"But they probably never thought they'd meet their end like this. I just used a little trick to send Dumbledore off to the Ministry of Magic on an urgent matter; as for Dracula, if he still hasn't noticed my actions by now, he's probably still teaching in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, hahaha..."

Hearing Quirrell's words, Harry's eyes widened.

Dumbledore had indeed gone to the Ministry of Magic, which was heavy news, but that was all. Because he knew that Professor Dracula was not in the classroom!

So where had the professor gone? Had he possibly noticed something wrong in the restricted area?

Harry's heart raced.

He felt the Sorcerer's Stone might still be saved!

...

At that moment, neither Quirrell nor Harry noticed a well-placed bat hanging upside down in the dark corner of the room, watching their movements with keen interest.

Dracula had been here for a long time, even arriving a few minutes earlier than Quirrell. He had watched the entire process of Quirrell and the trio's progress through the final stages.

When Quirrell was bound by ropes, and his demeanor changed drastically from his usual arrogance, Dracula flapped his wings with interest, instinctively reaching for a lollipop.

Then he realized he was not in human form, so he awkwardly folded his wings behind him.

In the final stage room, Quirrell released the ropes binding Harry and had him stand in front of the Mirror of Erised.

The next moment, Dracula clearly saw the Sorcerer's Stone quietly fall into Harry's pocket.

Harry did not admit to taking the Sorcerer's Stone, and Quirrell did not believe him. After some argument, Quirrell suddenly removed his purple turban.

Where the back of his head should have been was a horrifically monstrous face. The face was chalk-white, with glowing red eyes and long, snake-like nostrils.

'As expected.' Dracula thought to himself. 'Quirrell's scar wasn't caused by a vampire as he claimed, but by the mark left by Voldemort during his parasitic phase.'

When the Hogwarts professors checked earlier, Voldemort had probably regained some power and used some method to leave Quirrell's body. But even after leaving, the marks he left behind wouldn't vanish easily.

"Harry Potter..." The monstrous face whispered, "Give me the Sorcerer's Stone, don't let your mother's death be in vain."

Harry ignored him, gritting his teeth, and charged towards the door engulfed in black flames.

What followed was something Dracula could hardly understand—

At Voldemort's command, Quirrell lunged to grab Harry's wrist. Then Harry seemed to feel some pain, shouting and struggling fiercely.

At the same time, Quirrell strangely released his grip on Harry, bending over in pain. His fingers were sprouting blisters!

"Master, I can't hold him... my hands, my hands!" Quirrell moaned in agony.

"Then kill him, you fool, act quickly!" Voldemort's shrill voice echoed in Quirrell's mind.

Quirrell raised his hand, preparing to cast a deadly spell.

Seeing this, Dracula's wings fluttered slightly, ready to act at any moment.

But just then, Harry instinctively reached out to grab Quirrell's face—

Both of them screamed in unison.

The screams of Quirrell and Harry left Dracula utterly confused. He wondered how they suddenly seemed to be cursed without using any magic...

Even after living for a thousand years, Dracula had never encountered such a bizarre situation. So he decided to hold off on intervening and observe for a while.

Accompanied by piercing screams, Quirrell's body was gradually burned red, bubbling, until he completely turned into black smoke...

At the same time, Harry could no longer endure the intense pain from the scar on his forehead and fell into a deep unconsciousness.

Before he completely blacked out, he vaguely saw a phantom-like figure separating from Quirrell and another figure in a long black robe quickly moving through the black flames towards him...

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