Victor's magic circle class continued until late afternoon without a minute's pause. Hermione felt like her brain had been crammed with so much information that she had a hard time digesting it all at once.
"That's enough for today!" Victor put away his wand and began to instruct her. "You just need to roughly remember the things I just said. The important thing is the carving of the basic runes. You must keep practicing them, just like I showed you, to let your body get used to the feeling, not your mind. Understood?"
"Understood…" Hermione nodded, her head feeling a little woozy. It was only an afternoon, but Victor's tutoring made Hermione feel like she had done a day's worth of homework or three days' worth of reading.
After class, it was time for dinner.
The rest of the Swinton family gradually returned home, and Hermione, at Victor's invitation, stayed for dinner.
After dinner, Aliya excitedly chattered away with Hermione, and in the end, she suggested that Hermione just spend the night with her. Of course, this idea was shot down by Victor's strong opposition.
Ridiculous! If your daughter was invited to a male classmate's house for dinner for the first time, that's one thing. But staying the night? If I were Mr. Granger, I would immediately drive over and kill him!
However, a few days later, Victor was also invited by Hermione's parents to visit the Granger home and was warmly welcomed by the couple. Perhaps they had heard from Hermione that Victor's magic was very powerful, as Mrs. Granger kept asking Victor to take good care of her daughter at school, saying that while her daughter was smart, she was really a softy on the inside…
While Mrs. Granger was being so enthusiastic, she also spilled all of Hermione's embarrassing stories from her childhood, which made Hermione so mortified she wanted to cast an Obliviate on her own mother.
And just like that, the Christmas holiday quickly passed. The young witches and wizards of Hogwarts began to return to school, starting the new semester.
It was now February, the turn of winter and spring. In the evening, in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, Harry, who had always been prejudiced against Victor for some reason, suddenly found him while he was eating dinner.
At the long table, Victor looked at the boy in front of him, who seemed to be hesitating to speak. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and said, "I say, Harry Potter, you've been sitting here fidgeting like a girl for several minutes. What exactly do you want?!"
Hearing the impatience in Victor's voice, Harry nervously pursed his lips. After hesitating a few times, he stammered, "It's just… well, Dreyar, I was wondering if you know who Nicolas Flamel is?"
"Hmm?" Victor raised an eyebrow, and a mocking expression suddenly appeared on his face. He squinted at Harry and said, "What's this? You don't see me as one of Voldemort's followers anymore?"
"…" Harry lowered his head, a little embarrassed.
The reason Harry had suddenly come to see Victor today was entirely because of some things he had encountered at school during the Christmas holiday.
Let's rewind to more than a month ago. Shortly after the Christmas holiday began, Harry was bored stiff in the common room, so he put on the Invisibility Cloak that someone had sent him and started wandering around the school at night.
However, as he was exploring the secrets of Hogwarts alone in the dark, he accidentally came across Snape in a corridor, threatening the "weak" Professor Quirrell.
Harry couldn't quite understand their conversation at the time, but he felt that Snape was planning something very bad, which made his desire to quickly find clues about Nicolas Flamel even more urgent.
But that wasn't the most important part. The important thing was that after running into Snape and Quirrell, Harry unexpectedly found a very special mirror in a room, a mirror that allowed him to see the parents he had never met.
And so, Harry, who had been deprived of his parents' love since he was a child, went to that mirror every day for a long time afterward, silently looking at his parents in the mirror, gradually becoming consumed by it.
This continued until a few days ago, when he suddenly ran into Professor Dumbledore in front of the mirror…
"Stop! Don't go over it again!" Victor said, rubbing his temples with a headache. After Harry had asked about Nicolas Flamel, he had fallen silent again. Victor knew the entire story through Legilimency.
The mirror was actually the Mirror of Erised, a mirror that shows a person their deepest, most desperate desire.
Setting aside the things Dumbledore said to brainwash this little lion, Victor saw in Harry's memory Dumbledore's words: "Harry, the Mirror of Erised can't give us knowledge or truth. Many people waste away in front of it and even go mad. Of all the people I've seen, only Victor Dreyar said one thing when he first saw the Mirror of Erised… 'What a boring thing.'"
"Dreyar?!" Harry hadn't expected to hear that name suddenly.
"Yes, he is the most clear-headed and intelligent student I have ever seen. He seems to know everything, but he never loses his true self like Voldemort," Dumbledore said, but then he suddenly changed the subject. "Harry, the Mirror of Erised can bewitch a person's mind, so don't come here anymore. This mirror will be moved tomorrow…"
Victor, seeing Harry's memory, looked up at the headmaster's office, his face filled with annoyance. This seemingly casual conversation was a brilliant, open scheme.
The Mirror of Erised had been in Dumbledore's office before, and Victor had indeed said "what a boring thing" to that mirror when he visited his office. But that wasn't the point. The point was that after saying all that, Dumbledore's real goal was to resolve Harry's misunderstanding of him and also to create a connection between the Savior and himself. That's why Harry had suddenly come to him. This old man was a schemer.
Victor thought to himself. With Snape's pure villainous demeanor and the little lion's self-righteousness, Harry had been fruitlessly searching for clues about Nicolas Flamel for months, and now, under Dumbledore's hint, he had, in a roundabout way, found his way to Victor.
Thinking about this, Victor let out a helpless sigh. Oh well, I'll do him a favor. After all, I still need the old man's help with the guild.
So, he spoke to Harry: "Nicolas Flamel is a famous alchemist. He is the only alchemist in the world capable of creating the Philosopher's Stone. With the magical power of the stone, he made the Elixir of Life, extending his and his wife Perenelle's lives for over six centuries."
After saying this, he immediately disappeared with his dinner. This little lion in front of him was completely naive, and Victor was afraid that his foolishness would be contagious.
Harry was stunned when Victor suddenly disappeared in front of him, but he quickly realized that he might have just found a clue about Nicolas Flamel.
"The Philosopher's Stone! Nicolas Flamel!" Harry shouted excitedly, then ran back to the common room like a madman to tell Ron and Hermione what had happened.
"The Philosopher's Stone… I was so stupid! I finally remember now, when I first started school, I found a book in the library for fun, and it mentioned Nicolas Flamel!" In the Gryffindor common room, Hermione paced back and forth on the carpet, with a look of sudden realization on her face. "The Philosopher's Stone! So Fluffy is guarding the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape wants it!"
"Harry, how did you find this information?" While Hermione was reproaching herself, Ron asked excitedly.
"It was Dreyar. He was the one who told me…" Harry answered truthfully.
"Victor?!" Hermione looked incredulous at the answer. She turned and stared at Harry, asking angrily, "Why? Why would he tell you?"
"The last time I asked him for help, he said a bunch of things to me, and then he just used magic to send me back in front of the Fat Lady's portrait!"
"…" Harry looked at the increasingly resentful Hermione and was too scared to speak. He just shook his head fearfully and gestured with his eyes to Ron next to him.
In reality, he didn't know why Victor had helped him, but he realized that anything he said now would just make the little witch angrier at him.
Ron, who had received Harry's silent plea for help, quickly changed the subject. "Since we know Snape wants to steal the Philosopher's Stone, shouldn't we do something about it…"
Just before the Hogwarts curfew, the three little lions ran out of the castle without a care in the world and rushed to Hagrid's hut…
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