Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 130 The Desperate MacGuffin
"We must go to Dumbledore," Harry said, "... and tell him everything. The McGuffin situation can no longer be dragged on. He must have disappeared and been kidnapped. As long as the matter is revealed, Snape and Voldemort will definitely escape or be arrested, so that McGuffin may also be rescued."

"Where's Dumbledore's office?" Ron asked.

Hermione probably knew that it was somewhere on the eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle, but after they arrived on the eighth floor, they wandered around countless times, but they didn't see the 'stylish' door suspected to be the headmaster's office, or any students or professors coming out of a secret passageway with some portraits.

"There must be some kind of magical mechanism, we can't just stay here and circle around...Merlin! This is a waste of time." Hermione stopped Harry's useless effort.

"Yeah, yeah, my legs are going to break..." Ron stopped, hammering the calves of his legs, and complained dejectedly.

"Ron, have George and Fred been taken to meet the Headmaster... perhaps as a prefect, is it possible that Percy knows where Dumbledore lives?" It occurred to Harry that maybe someone else knew where Dumbledore lived.

"They!...Maybe they know more about the furnishings and textures of every piece of furniture in Filch's office." Ron sneered, "As for Percy, of course he wants to know, but unfortunately he is only a prefect...Unfortunately, if it was Bill, it would still be possible to know where Dumbledore's office is? Unfortunately, it is too late to write a letter with an owl..."

Harry knew that Bill was the eldest of the Weasleys, and was the chairman of the Students' Union when he was a student at Hogwarts. It was indeed possible to know where the headmaster's office was!Unfortunately, as Ron said, they didn't have time to send the owl to question him carefully.

"I have to go and tell Professor McGonagall about it...McGuffin has been missing for almost a whole day now, we can't drag it on..." Hermione was interrupted before finishing speaking.

Professor McGonagall's angry voice came from a corner not far away, and at the same time there was a very annoying voice.

"Malfoy Draco, didn't you learn your lesson from the closure of the Forbidden Forest last time...huh?...What do you want to do with Professor Dumbledore?"

"Professor, I, I'm not...you don't understand...McGuffin is a member of a criminal organization in the wizarding world," Malfoy shouted anxiously after seeing Professor McGonagall's distorted expression after hearing this, "I...I want to report to you that McGuffin was completely missing this morning. He missed all classes...he wasn't there at breakfast and lunch. He must be planning some evil deeds. Besides, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are also accomplices..."

"Still talking nonsense here, Malfoy, why are you still full of such strange thoughts now? It seems that the last time the Forbidden Forest taught you a lesson is not enough, you actually slandered other students out of thin air."

"As for Albert, Professor Quirrell has something to ask McGuffin to do, and he has asked for leave...Harry, Ron and the others have been reviewing in class today. At least they still have the brains to know that the final exam will be in a few days."

"Draco Malfoy, hurry back and review your Transfiguration class... Are you sure about the Transfiguration exam?" Professor McGonagall's voice became clearer and clearer.

"Professor McGonagall, I know this is a bit unbelievable...Professor Quirrell is also with McGuffin. I saw them talking about dragons with my own eyes...Let me meet Professor Dumbledore, he will understand all this." Malfoy screamed eagerly, but he didn't know that he had committed a terrible death.

"Professor Dumbledore left early in the morning." She said coldly, "He received an urgent letter from the Ministry of Magic from the owl and immediately flew to London..."

"Draco Malfoy! Now you actually start to slander a professor, a teacher who selflessly taught you knowledge..." Professor McGonagall heard from Malfoy's voice that this little wizard thought he couldn't understand the meaning of his words, which made her tremble with anger.

"Could it be Draco or your father's report letter to the Ministry of Magic?"

While talking, an idea came to Professor McGonagall's mind

——Is this little guy reporting Professor Dumbledore to the Ministry of Magic through his father Lucius?

That's why the Ministry of Magic impatiently called Professor Dumbledore back to London to start questioning.I heard that Lucius is a member of the board of directors of Hogwarts, and he has always wanted to drive Dumbledore out of this school.

——Thinking about it this way, this little wizard is indeed very suspicious.

"Report letter? What report letter? Professor..." Malfoy asked very puzzled.

"Nothing?" Professor McGuffin immediately realized that he was worrying too much.

——He is just a first-year little wizard, what can he know?Not that kid McGuffin Albert!It's better to hurry up and prepare this little wizard for the next exam.

"Draco... If you don't do well in Transfiguration by then, don't blame me for writing to inform your father Lucius to supervise your studies during the summer vacation..."

"No—Professor McGonagall, you can't do this..." Malfoy screamed terribly.

The sound was getting closer and closer, Harry and the others realized something, and it was too late for them to avoid it.

— behind it was a long, straight corridor with nowhere to hide.

Hermione reacted immediately, she pulled Harry and Ron, and walked across the corner first.

Sure enough, he bumped into Professor McGonagall who was holding a large stack of books, angrily reprimanding Malfoy.

Professor McGonagall heard the movement and turned to look over.

"What are you three doing here?" Professor McGonagall looked at them suspiciously.

——Is there any one of these little wizards who doesn't make trouble?First Malfoy...now even Hermione...

"Professor McGonagall, we are looking for you! We haven't seen Albert all morning and thought he was missing... We are very worried about him!"

Harry and Ron looked at Hermione in admiration. They didn't expect that Hermione could come here with her mouth open.

——Sure enough, according to McGuffin's words, it takes three years to learn well and three days to learn badly.

"Didn't Professor Quirrell and Albert tell you? Really... These wizards, no matter they are old, big, or young, are not worried at all." Professor McGonagall murmured secretly, and then said to Hermione, "I think you have just heard the conversation between Malfoy and me? McGuffin is on leave. He has something to do, so don't worry... Review your homework carefully!"

It seemed that Professor McGonagall believed what they said.

Afterwards, Harry led them forward for a certain distance and hid in a corner. After seeing that there was no one around, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly whispered, "It seems that Snape is going to go through the trapdoor to steal the Philosopher's Stone tonight."

"Everything he needs has been knocked down. I bet that Professor McGonagall wrote the report letter to the Ministry of Magic. The purpose is to get Dumbledore to leave the school,"

"Professor Quirrell... Didn't McGuffin also write his name on that note? He must have been coerced by Professor Snape to become a pawn... He was so cowardly, that's why Snape took so long to force him to succeed. We were wrong... Snape not only wanted Quirrell to tell him the defense mechanism to protect the Philosopher's Stone, he also wanted Quirrell to help him steal the Philosopher's Stone, that's why Quirrell persisted for such a long time, and he refused to do so... So now he asks for McGuffin. False, that’s why it’s not easy to arouse suspicion from other professors.”

"That's right! In this way, everything is connected... There is only one truth, and that is..."

"Snape thought of a way this morning. Together with Professor Quirrell, he coerced or tricked McGuffin into going out to Hogwarts Castle to kidnap him... McGuffin felt something was wrong at that time... That's why he left a note in a hurry to remind us... because he knew Harry, you would definitely fix the Invisibility Cloak... See this note..." Ron also deduced the 'truth'.

This inference really made Hermione hesitate a bit, - it sounds logical and logical, but it just feels (in McGuffin's words) 'something is not quite right'?

Seeing Hermione's hesitation, Harry said to her, "Hermione, you also saw that Professor McGonagall refuted Malfoy's words just now...We can't provide any reliable evidence to prove Snape's allegation of stealing the Philosopher's Stone, and Professor Dumbledore is not in the school. He probably won't come back until tomorrow..."

"I'm sure Professor McGonagall won't believe the things we said... We are slandering the two professors out of thin air. If they didn't experience it personally, who would believe these things... We must find traces of McGuffins, and even if we can't find them, we must stop Snape from stealing the Philosopher's Stone, so that maybe when he fails to meet the requirements, it is possible to guarantee the life of McGuffins..."

"Okay! We agreed, one will go to see Quirrell, the other will go to see Professor Snape, first look for traces of McGuffin... Finally, we will meet in the public rest during dinner," Hermione said.

"If it doesn't work, I'll sneak to the restricted area on the fourth floor tonight, and get the Philosopher's Stone through Lu Wei's handle..." Harry's eyes gleamed with determination.

"Are you crazy? You will be expelled..." Although Ron hoped to save McGuffin, he also longed for himself to see what the Philosopher's Stone looked like (he also secretly asked if he could secretly turn stones into gold and buy the English Quidditch team.)
Can--

But in order to prevent Snape from stealing the Philosopher's Stone, they took it away first.

——This is too MacGuffin!Unexpectedly, Harry had such crazy thoughts in his mind...

"Harry is right, Ron!..." Unexpectedly, Hermione, who had always been against it, agreed with Harry's crazy idea after a little thought. "I don't know what's going on with the McGuffin right now? And no professor will believe our absurd claims. We must find a way to save the McGuffin... If there is no trace of the McGuffin, we should take the Philosopher's Stone down first. This is a helpless move."

"If the truth comes out, maybe we won't be fired..."

"We...you! Hermione you?"

"That's right! Don't be stupid, Harry, do you think we'll let you act alone?... Such a fun thing, I've long wanted to see what the Philosopher's Stone looks like!" Ron also said.

"You'd better try to see if the invisibility cloak can cover all three of us...Anyway, it can definitely cover two of us."

After the three discussed the topic in a friendly atmosphere, they faced a rather realistic problem.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stand in a triangle, you look at me, I look at you.

Then
—Who goes to Snape?

The big eyeball looked at the small eyeball, and the eyes looked at the glasses, but did not speak.

The atmosphere was tangled.

Finally Ron whispered to Hermione, "Hermione, why don't you go to Snape's?"

"Why me?" Hermione's voice suddenly sharpened.

"Acridine (a)?!...You won't let me and Harry go to that place, right? Harry won't say anything, even if it's me, Snape will take the opportunity to cook it into a potion and eat it." Ron looked terrified and frightened, "If it's you... at least you can ask him a question... A professor like him won't drive away a student who is eager to ask questions, right? You can take this opportunity to see what's going on with him."

Hermione was still a little flustered after hearing this, and she said, "Wait... I thought about it, even if the McGuffin was kidnapped by them, it would be impossible for a living person of that size to be placed in their office. Most likely, it should be in the Forbidden Forest. Should we get rid of Hagrid and search for it in the Forbidden Forest?"

"Hermione, think about what you're talking about?...Snape and Quirrell don't know that we suspect him, and didn't Harry sense that the McGuffin was turned into a small animal, unable to speak...and confined in a narrow place? We just need to take a look at their office to see if there is such a small animal."

"Really? Harry? When did you have such ability." Hermione looked at Harry suspiciously.

In the end, Hermione agreed to visit Snape, while Harry and Ron went to Quirrell's office.

It didn't take long for Harry and Ron to arrive outside Quirrell's office on the third floor.

—the door was not shut.

(Ron and the others have never been here, but the little wizards who have been there are all shuddering and describing: - it is best not to go, it feels like Snape's office, creepy. In the end they always say seriously, 'Seeing the [decoration] of this professor's office... I can understand why, there will always be people who say that Professor Quirrell must have offended some Romanian vampire, and the scarf is full of garlic...')
"Professor Quirrell? Do we need to find you?" Harry tried to call out, knocked on the door, but when no one responded, they opened the door and went in.

Once inside, the first thing that catches their eyes is the "Wanted Notice" pictures of all kinds of lively non-human creatures on the surrounding walls... Werewolves, vampires, trolls, goblins, etc., their faces are ferocious, and they bark their teeth and claws.

(Most of them are bloody vampires.)
Ron immediately took a few steps back in fright.

——The monsters in the picture immediately let out piercing laughter with satisfaction.

"I know why no one wants to come here? Who would have known that the office of Professor Quirrell, who looks wretched and timid and stutters, would look like this... It seems that this guy is getting more and more suspicious..." Ron muttered softly, and he suddenly pulled the sleeve of Harry's robe vigorously, pointing his finger in one direction.

Harry saw the familiar big snake in the glass jar at a glance.

He remembered, after the match with Slytherin that day, when he heard Snape threatening Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest

—looked like the snake that he had met and reminded himself of at that time.

The two of them walked in.

——to see if it might be a MacGuffin?If it wasn't, but it was the big snake, he wanted to ask what it meant that day, that there were two dangerous monsters in the Forbidden Forest—referring to the situation mentioned today (Snape and Quirrell)?
……

McGuffin opened his eyes and watched Harry Ron pointing at himself while lying on the wall of the glass tank.

—but he couldn't answer!
He seemed to be ordered by Voldemort through the Parseltongue, cast a spell, and completely turned into a snake.

——When the blood curse reaches its final stage, will he become like this?Will he always be like this?

McGuffin's own consciousness seems to be isolated in a small black room, and he can only look outside, feeling that the snake's body thinks and acts according to instinct, or the snake's brain.

"Wake up! McGuffin! Wake up...get up..." He screamed helplessly in his heart, trying to resist, trying to control his body, wanting to speak...but it was of no use.

Instead, this snake-like body instinctively drove to the position of the dead mouse that he had thrown down earlier, curled up his tail and brought it up in front of his eyes.

--This is?
"No no!-no-no no-no-no no no! No!"

"I'm not Mr. Pei, and I'm not starved! Even they don't just eat their skins and skins... They swallow them alive like this!"

McGuffin screamed in his heart, roared, and resisted.

He looked desperately, feeling the snake's head suddenly open its bloody mouth.

One goolong—swallowed the mouse whole.

Do not! ——

In the small black room, McGuffin's self-consciousness as a human being screamed hoarsely, complaining, and tears flowed out of his eyes.

— Fuck your uncle's Quirrell!

Labor and management want to kill you!

The desperate MacGuffin, his hostile voice echoed in a hidden corner of his heart.

(End of this chapter)