Late at night, Dudley prepared to go to the corridor on the third floor to take a look.
At midnight, Hogwarts Castle was almost empty.
"So late, where are you going?" The Fat Lady, half-asleep, opened the door for Dudley.
"Can't sleep, going out for a walk," Dudley said casually.
"Can't sleep? Are kids under so much pressure nowadays?" The Fat Lady yawned and didn't ask further.
Dudley had prefect privileges and could to some extent break school rules, so the Fat Lady didn't bother him and went back to sleep after Dudley left.
After leaving Gryffindor Tower, Dudley activated his spiritual vision and carefully observed the surroundings before cautiously heading toward the corridor on the third floor.
Along the way, he encountered no obstacles and easily arrived at the corridor on the third floor.
"With this level of defense, I don't know where Dumbledore gets the confidence to defend against Quirrell, relying on Hagrid's dog?" Dudley thought to himself.
Arriving at the door at the end of the corridor on the third floor, Dudley didn't rush to open the door but took out the small package from his pocket that he had received during the day.
After opening it, inside was a small music box. Last night, Dudley wrote a letter to his mother saying he missed the music box from his childhood and asked Petunia to pack it and have Hedwig bring it back. After receiving her son's letter, Petunia didn't hesitate and immediately packed the music box and sent it over.
"Alohomora." Dudley didn't use his wand but directly cast the unlocking spell. This was to avoid leaving traces if someone later checked his wand.
The door opened a crack, and Dudley opened the music box. Light, delicate music played as he placed the music box through the door crack.
After a while, Dudley listened carefully and heard heavy breathing from the door crack, very steady. The dog should be asleep.
Dudley opened the door and walked in. The three-headed dog was indeed asleep to the music from the music box, and it was sleeping very soundly. Even though Dudley was standing in front of it, it didn't react at all.
"Is this the weakness of the three-headed dog? Seemingly strong magical creatures can be easily dealt with once their weakness is known."
Dudley no longer paid attention to the three-headed dog and focused on the trapdoor under its paw.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Dudley used a spell to move the dog's paw aside and gently pulled. The trapdoor opened, revealing a huge dark space below.
"..." Dudley was speechless. This... just opened like that?
Dudley was a bit puzzled. Was the Philosopher's Stone really hidden here? Or was it a trap set by Dumbledore?
He leaned over to look down. Through spiritual vision, Dudley saw densely intertwined lights. These lights were very faint but connected to each other, like entwined pythons, constantly writhing slightly.
"Magical pythons?" Dudley was startled.
"No." Dudley quickly realized these were not pythons but some kind of plant vines.
"Lumos." Dudley waved his right hand, and a beam of light shone down, illuminating the space below.
"Sure enough, plants!" Dudley breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had almost mistaken the area below for a snake nest.
Using the light, Dudley carefully examined the patterns on the vines.
"Devil's Snare?" Dudley noticed the plants were writhing to avoid the light, and with the obvious patterns, he almost immediately recognized them.
"Isn't this the plant we learned about in Herbology class recently?" Dudley frowned.
Devil's Snare was scary, but once you knew what it feared, it was easy to deal with. Light and warmth—these two things even a first-year student could easily provide.
At this moment, the light from Dudley's glowing spell made the Devil's Snare very uneasy, and it started to avoid the light. He didn't even need to cast other spells to easily pass through this 'terrifying plant' network.
Dudley pondered. He didn't rush down but observed more carefully. The method here was too simple, so simple it felt unreal to Dudley.
"When things go wrong, there must be a demon!" "Russell's words are true." "There must be a deeper conspiracy beneath this simple surface." Dudley thought to himself.
The simpler the method to deal with something, the more likely there was a problem. Just like in that world, those seemingly muscular Beyonders who could smash buildings weren't scary. The scary ones were those who stood aside, seemingly harmless, but whose methods were more terrifying and decisive.
While low-level Beyonders considered how to physically eliminate opponents, high-level Beyonders thought about how to eliminate them from abstract concepts. The two methods were not on the same level.
Given Dumbledore's position in the wizarding world, the defenses he set up couldn't be that simple.
Dudley began to carefully check the situation below, even using spiritual vision to scan almost all areas. He even had to wind the music box twice.
A quarter of an hour later, Dudley wore a gloomy expression. He found no other problems. Besides the Devil's Snare, there was nothing else, not even magical traces.
"Am I overthinking?" Dudley wasn't sure.
"Maybe because of the initial reason, nothing too powerful was set up." Dudley thought to himself.
After pondering, Dudley took the music box back, planning to use it again when leaving.
"Incendio." Dudley directly cast a spell, and crimson flames quickly appeared, burning the Devil's Snare below. In just a moment, the Devil's Snare was burned to pieces. The remaining parts shrank tremblingly into the corner, revealing a passage below.
"There should be no problem now." Dudley finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. This really was just a layer of Devil's Snare, with no deeper traps.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Dudley cast a levitation spell on himself and slowly descended, soon passing through the room with the Devil's Snare and entering another room directly below.
After landing steadily, Dudley looked up. This was really much easier than he had imagined.
"Looks like I really was overthinking." Dudley pursed his lips, unsure what to say.
After determining the direction, Dudley walked toward a nearby door. From there came some faint sounds, as if something was moving.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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