"Yes, Madam Pomfrey couldn't figure out what's wrong with Scabbers. She said it might just be because he's old."
Ron sighed.
"Scabbers used to be Percy's pet. I heard from a witch at the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley that regular rats don't usually live more than three years. Scabbers is probably really old."
His expression turned a bit sorrowful.
"Oh! If Scabbers is gone, I don't even know what kind of new pet I should get."
Hermione shot him a glance. "Are you sure Mrs. Weasley would even buy you one?"
Ron looked even more miserable. "I don't know… Maybe my mom will just find me another second-hand pet."
Dylan blinked at Ron's sad face.
After thinking for two seconds, he gently reassured him, "Don't worry. I saw a glimpse of the future in my crystal ball—your rat will still be with you."
—At least, for now.
And with him around, Scabbers wasn't going to die that easily.
After all, he was counting on this rat to help him rack up stats and complete missions.
"Huh? Really?" Ron was stunned for a moment before his face lit up in surprise. "It must be true! I trust your Divination skills, Dylan!"
Hermione looked a bit skeptical. "A glimpse of the future? How far into the future? Tomorrow? The day after? Next month?"
Dylan chuckled. "At least through our third year, Scabbers will still be with Ron."
Hermione's eyes widened. "Wow, a rat living that long? And it's second-hand?"
Ron shot her a glare. "That just means my Scabbers is a lucky rat! Stop saying things like that!"
Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, Harry suddenly clutched his forehead. "Ugh!"
Everyone froze, watching Harry's pained expression. Neville quickly asked, "Harry, are you okay?"
Harry frowned slightly, as if enduring some discomfort. After a moment, he finally looked up.
"It's just… my scar hurts. I've been feeling this since before exams."
Harry rubbed his forehead, but the discomfort only lessened slightly.
"At first, I thought it was just stress from studying with Hermione…"
Hermione's eyes widened in indignation.
Harry shrank back slightly. "Then I realized that wasn't it, because recently, the pain has been getting more frequent. This definitely isn't just study stress!"
"I think it might be related to the dreams I've been having."
Dylan paused for a moment. "Don't tell me I'm in those dreams too?"
Harry pressed his lips together and then gave a small nod.
Dylan's mouth twitched as he looked at Harry. "Or you could look at it from another angle. If your scar is hurting, maybe it's a sign of danger. Maybe… the Dark Lord is up to something?"
"What?!" Ron was shocked.
Harry immediately lifted his head, blinking rapidly. "V-Voldemort is… up to something? What does he want?"
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you guys just investigating the Sorcerer's Stone? So, I'm guessing… maybe they're planning to go after it?"
Harry instantly became excited, speaking so quickly he started to stutter. "D-Dylan, can you use your Divination abilities to see anything?"
"See what?"
"Of course, whether—whether the Dark Lord's plan will succeed!"
Dylan waved a hand and gave Harry a reassuring smile. "My Divination skills aren't precise enough to give a detailed answer, but I can foresee fortune and misfortune."
"I believe that as long as you follow your heart and trust your instincts, good fortune awaits you."
"Good fortune?" Harry was momentarily confused.
Dylan: "Your future luck—your fate will be quite favorable. And if your luck is good, then logically, that means the Dark Lord's luck will be terrible, right?"
Harry nodded uncertainly. "That… actually makes sense."
"Alright, let's go. Just because exams are over doesn't mean we get to relax. I still have three spells to study today."
Dylan turned and headed toward the Great Hall.
—He was starving.
"Alright." Harry didn't know why, but after hearing Dylan's words, the pain in his scar seemed to ease slightly.
He rubbed his forehead, then lowered his hand, preparing to follow Dylan to the Great Hall.
Just then, Neville walked past him and said with absolute confidence, "Don't worry! Dylan may only be a first-year, but he's way better than us! Even the professors praise him. Even Professor Snape has been more lenient toward Gryffindor because of him."
Hermione cut in, "You mean when Professor Snape gives Dylan points, only to find some excuse to take twice as many away from Gryffindor?"
Neville remained unfazed. "At least he gave points in the first place, right?"
Hermione: "...If you put it that way, I have nothing to say."
Neville turned back to Harry. "So, since Dylan said your luck is good, and that your… uh, what was it… fortune? Since that's ahead of you, you can relax!"
With that, Neville scampered off to catch up with Dylan.
"Dylan! Thanks to your tutoring, my exams went really well!"
"That's great."
Watching Dylan and Neville walk away, Harry stood in silent contemplation.
Alright! No matter what the Dark Lord was planning, he would stop him!
However, his resolve didn't last long.
"What? Professor Dumbledore was summoned to London by the Ministry of Magic?!"
Harry panicked again.
He had followed Dylan's advice and listened to his heart.
So, while eating, he thought things over and decided he should inform Professor Dumbledore.
But when he went to Professor McGonagall, he was told that the Headmaster wasn't at the school today and wouldn't be back until at least tomorrow.
This made Harry even more anxious, and his scar throbbed even more painfully.
Leaving Professor McGonagall's office, Harry turned to Ron. "This must be Quirrell's scheme!"
Hermione nodded. "If Professor Dumbledore were here, Quirrell wouldn't stand a chance. But if the Headmaster is gone…"
Ron frowned. "If even Professor Dumbledore isn't here, how can we possibly stop an adult wizard? Maybe we should just tell Dylan about this?"
Harry sighed. "If we're going to tell someone, we might as well go straight to Professor McGonagall. I don't want to drag Dylan into this."
Hermione shrugged. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."
The group knocked on Professor McGonagall's office door once again.
Stammering slightly, Harry left out the part about the dragon egg but told Professor McGonagall the whole story.
However, the other party didn't believe them at all.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Professor Quirrell was personally recruited by Headmaster Dumbledore! How can you spread such rumors about a professor?"
"Huh? We're not spreading rumors—this is the truth!"
"Enough! I don't want to hear another word about this! If I do, even though you're Gryffindor students, I'll consider it an insult to a professor and give you detention!"
"But Professor McGonagall, if Professor Dumbledore isn't around and Quirrell goes to the fourth floor, we won't be able to find out anything!"
"What?" Professor McGonagall's eyes widened in shock. "You're even thinking about going to the fourth floor? Absolutely not! If I find out you've gone there, I will personally see to it that you're severely punished!"
In the end, Professor McGonagall chased them out.
Ron muttered, "I told you we should've just gone straight to Dylan. Now we can't do anything."
Hermione pursed her lips. "Alright, stop saying that. We're just a bunch of first-year wizards—we can't really do anything. The Sorcerer's Stone is protected by so many enchantments from the professors. Nothing will happen to it."
Harry took a deep breath. "We should still try to find Dylan. He might have a plan."
Hermione glared at him. "Professor McGonagall said we're not allowed to get involved anymore! Otherwise, we'll get detention!"
Ron added, "And we'll lose house points."
Harry suddenly turned to look at Ron.
Ron hesitated, then added, "But… maybe we should still go see if Dylan has any ideas."
Hermione frowned. "Harry, didn't you just say you didn't want to drag Dylan into this?"
Harry looked away, staring at the ceiling. "I've changed my mind."
Hermione: "…"
She had no way to argue against Harry and Ron, so she had no choice but to follow them to the library in search of Dylan.
Yet after searching once, twice, and even a third time…
"Where did Dylan go?" Harry grew more anxious. He clutched his forehead, trying to ease the pain from his scar. "He's not in the dormitory either!"
"Uh… I have an idea." Ron thought for a while, then swallowed nervously.
"What is it?" Harry and Hermione immediately turned to him.
Under their intense stares, Ron hesitated before saying, "I think… maybe Dylan already went to stop Quirrell."
As soon as he said this, both Harry and Hermione were stunned.
"That's right! Other than us, Dylan knows the most about Quirrell!" Hermione suddenly realized. "We haven't found him in the library or the dormitory, so either he's with the professors or he's already gone after Quirrell!"
"Then we have to hurry and help Dylan!" Harry immediately turned to head for the Forbidden Corridor on the fourth floor.
"Wait! But if Professor McGonagall catches us, we'll—" Hermione started, but Harry cut her off.
"Are you really going to let Dylan face danger alone just because you're afraid of getting punished?"
"We'll just have to take the punishment together!"
Hermione paused and rolled her eyes. "First of all—"
"Professor McGonagall definitely won't punish Dylan the way she would us."
"Second, Dylan is way more skilled than you—or even me. Are you sure that if we go, we'll actually help him instead of just getting in his way?"
She looked at Harry and Ron seriously. "I think there's no need to worry about Dylan. Honestly, with our level of skill, we'd probably just be a burden."
Ron glanced at Hermione and mumbled under his breath, "She actually included herself in that insult…"
Hermione turned her head. "I heard that."
Ron immediately straightened up. "I didn't say anything!"
Harry hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "No, we still need to help Dylan. What if he needs our help?"
Hermione was about to argue, but Harry cut her off again. "Dylan told me I should follow my heart and my own thoughts."
At that, Hermione fell silent.
"Then let's go." She let out a deep sigh. "Where's your Invisibility Cloak?"
Without another word, Harry led Ron and Hermione in a specific direction.
---
Meanwhile…
On the fourth-floor corridor.
A door, strictly forbidden by all the professors, was already wide open.
Clearly, someone had gone inside.
Dylan tilted his head slightly. "I just can't remember exactly when old Dumbledore shows up."
He glanced up at the system panel.
---
**[Pending Spell Refinement]:** *Crucio (The Cruciatus Curse)*
**[Locked Spell Trait]:** *Hellish Agony*
**[Active Refinement Quest]:** *Make a powerful adult wizard succumb to your Cruciatus Curse and scream in agony!*
---
This refinement quest was something he had unlocked with money after finishing his exams.
And the moment he saw the task, only one candidate came to mind.
That's right—lucky Quirrell.
Dylan stepped through the doorway, looking down at the footprints on the floor.
They weren't deep, and there was plenty of dust around, suggesting they had only recently settled.
"Trackprint!"
With a slight tap of his wand, a set of footprints appeared. Feeling the residual magic in the air, he came to a rough conclusion.
Quirrell had likely been inside for one to two hours already.
"Impatient, aren't we?"
Dylan smirked slightly, glancing around the room.
Since he hadn't come with Harry and the others earlier, this was his first time seeing Hagrid's so-called "adorable" pet.
"Snore… snore…"
The massive, three-headed dog lay sprawled across the floor, its enormous body tense with muscle, as solid as stone.
Dylan observed it carefully. All three pairs of eyes were shut, the skin around them wrinkled and dry. Its fur was coarse, and its three gaping mouths were absurdly large.
Even in its deep slumber, as the dog breathed softly, rows of huge fangs peeked out from its mouths.
"Hmm… I wonder if a three-headed dog can be controlled with the Imperius Curse."
Back when he controlled Arnold, it had only been an egg about to hatch…
Even with the dragon's naturally high magic resistance, coupled with the eggshell's strong defense against spells, it still ultimately succumbed to Dylan's relentless barrage of the Imperius Curse, falling under his control.
As for the three-headed dog, if it were a fully matured adult, it would naturally be far inferior to a dragon.
However, that didn't mean it was weak.
On the contrary, the three-headed dog also possessed extremely high magic resistance.
Dylan was tempted to test whether controlling the three-headed dog would unlock some new achievement.
However, he was concerned that a single Imperius Curse might accidentally wake it from its deep slumber.
If that happened, escaping from its jaws wouldn't be easy unless he resorted to the Killing Curse or Fiendfyre.
"Forget it. There aren't any particularly valuable materials on this creature. The few useful ones would require killing it to extract."
Dylan studied the three-headed dog for a moment before shaking his head.
At this point, he already had a dragon, albeit still in its juvenile stage. However, after some time, it had grown to a considerable size.
So whenever Dylan secretly took it to the Forbidden Forest to feed, he would discreetly use Sectumsempra to make a small cut on Arno, collect a bit of dragon blood, then heal the wound with Episkey before calling Hagrid over.
(End of Chapter)