0103 Fluffy

Hermione never expected that even after telling the truth, this would still be the result.

She stood there for a moment, finally stamped her foot and said bitterly:

"If I can't stop it, then I'll join in!"

But when she hurried back, she found Sherlock and Harry were already gone.

After asking nearby students, she learned they had left shortly after she did.

"Oh no!"

Hermione suddenly thought of something and was shocked.

She immediately rushed toward the fourth-floor room Dumbledore had mentioned.

"Sherlock, if you dare leave me behind, I'll never forgive you!"

Hermione thought through gritted teeth as she ran.

It was currently lunch break, and with the exams just finished, not many teachers and students were lingering outside.

This allowed Hermione to reach her destination without being discovered. When facing the door that Dumbledore had specifically mentioned, Hermione slowed down, looking around cautiously and carefully as she crept to the door.

She noticed this door had already been opened a crack.

"Damn!"

Hermione cursed under her breath and prepared to push the door open.

Just then,

The door was suddenly pulled open from inside, and a strong, powerful hand reached out from the gap, covered her mouth, and pulled her inside.

Then the door closed with a "thud," tightly shut.

"This is bad!"

Hermione, who had been pulled through the door, was shocked and instinctively reached for her wand.

But she soon trembled all over and then relaxed.

Because she had experienced this scene once before.

Noticing Hermione was no longer struggling, the owner of the hand released her.

Hermione immediately looked up.

Sure enough, a pair of gray eyes appeared in her sight.

"I knew it—"

Hermione muttered unhappily.

When Quirrell had released the troll, Sherlock had used this same move on her.

Now it was happening again, so she naturally recognized it immediately.

This guy—didn't he know anything about being a gentleman?

Just then, a somewhat inappropriate voice spoke up:

"Hey, mate, why are you so practiced at this?"

Hermione turned to see Ron looking at Sherlock and her with a mischievous gaze.

This made Hermione's face turn red, and she couldn't help glaring at Sherlock again.

Sherlock acted as if nothing had happened and waved his hand: "Everyone's here, let's go."

Only then did Hermione have time to look at the room's full appearance.

Then she was startled.

Because directly in front was a dog as large as a monster.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say this dog was big enough to fill all the space from ceiling to floor.

What shocked Hermione even more was that it actually had three heads!

Fortunately, it was currently in a sleeping state.

Even so, those three drool-covered bloody mouths were extremely terrifying.

Especially its saliva, which hung like sticky ropes from its yellowed fangs.

Very disgusting!

The kind of thing that would give you nightmares just from looking at it once.

Hagrid actually called this thing Fluffy?

The contrast was a bit too great!

Besides Sherlock, who had just pulled her aside, and Ron, who was standing further away, Harry was also in this room. At this moment, he was holding the Christmas gift Hagrid had given him, puffing his cheeks as he played the flute.

How to put it—completely without rhythm or melody, no different from noise.

But even so, this fierce-looking big dog seemed to enjoy these notes very much, sleeping deeply. Under Sherlock's direction, the group passed by the big dog one by one.

When they got close to those three huge heads, they all felt that hot, stinking breath.

Fortunately, this smell hadn't reached the level of the troll, so they could all barely tolerate it.

Behind the big dog was a trapdoor, just like a cellar door.

Sherlock reached out and pulled it open, casually casting a lighting spell.

Unfortunately, it was quite deep below the trapdoor. Even after casting a lighting spell, they still couldn't see anything.

Sherlock turned to the three without hesitation and said:

"I'll jump down first. If nothing happens, you follow."

Then he specifically instructed Harry, who was playing the flute, "Keep playing until we've all jumped down. Don't stop."

After saying this, without waiting for the three to agree, he directly took a leap of faith and jumped down.

"Hey, mate, you didn't say what to do if something does happen!"

Ron rushed to the door and called down.

Unfortunately, Sherlock didn't answer.

He turned back to see Hermione and Harry looking at him with indescribable expressions.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm trying to be thorough too!"

Harry was busy playing the flute and could only respond with gestures and expressions.

Hermione said bluntly, "If something really happens, please hurry up and find a professor to save us!"

"Hermione, you're giving Sherlock too much credit—he already thought of that before we left. He had Watson and Hedwig deliver letters to several professors."

"What are you so smug about? It's not like you did it!"

While the two were bickering, Sherlock was in a state of free fall.

Cold, damp air rushed past his ears.

Sherlock silently calculated his fall time. Estimating it was about right, he took out his wand in advance.

Sure enough, with a strange, muffled impact sound, he landed on something soft.

Sherlock immediately stood up and began assessing the surrounding situation.

Good, Dumbledore's intelligence was reliable.

He then raised his wand high and shot a purple firework upward.

Then he cast an amplification charm and shouted toward the opening above, which now looked about the size of a postage stamp:

"Safe! You can jump down!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ron jumped down with impressive speed and decisiveness.

"What is this thing?"

He looked around and couldn't help asking.

"Devil's Snare planted by Professor Sprout—it's laid here to cushion falls and also to obstruct our progress."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hermione and Harry jumped down one after another, landing on Sherlock's left and right.

At this moment, Fluffy's loud barking could be heard again, obviously having woken up after no longer hearing Harry's flute.

"I have to say, Harry," having successfully escaped from beside the big dog, Ron couldn't help joking, "your flute playing is really terrible, it could compete with Sherlock's violin."

Harry shrugged indifferently. "I never knew how to play in the first place. As long as it could make that big dog sleep, it was good enough."

"Well, you're right," Ron shrugged and looked at Sherlock. "But what I don't understand is—why does it want to sleep when it hears music?"

"My friend, when I told you about helping Hagrid deal with the dragon egg, I mentioned this."

"Did you?"

Ron thought briefly, then suddenly understood.

There really was!

It was just that his attention had been focused on Sherlock using despicable methods to force Hagrid to give up the dragon egg, so he had overlooked this detail.

Sherlock said nothing, obviously having expected this.

But when Ron saw Harry and Hermione looking at him, he became embarrassed and angry:

"Don't look at me like that!

I only just found out about Sherlock and Harry encountering Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest. You've been keeping it from me so badly!

What if I really can't find a girlfriend?"

Hearing Ron say this, Hermione immediately remembered what he had said:

"If this is true, let me not find a girlfriend before I'm twenty."

Seeing his embarrassed appearance, Hermione also remembered her own reaction when she first learned about this, and found it increasingly funny.

He was getting flustered.

But on the surface, she still said with a straight face: "Ronald, this is clearly your own problem!

Ever since Sherlock mentioned that Fluffy falls asleep when hearing music, have you paid any attention to it?

With your attitude, how could we possibly feel comfortable telling you about this—"

"Hey—!"

"My name isn't 'Hey'!"

"Alright, Hermione, I admit I was focused on the dragon egg at the time, but weren't you the same?

If Sherlock hadn't mentioned this today, you would have forgotten about it long ago, right?"

Ron said this because when Sherlock had brought Harry and him here earlier, he had specifically told Harry to bring the flute Hagrid had given him.

At the time, neither Harry nor he had realized what this thing was for.

Judging others by himself, he felt that even if Hermione was stronger than them, it was only by a limited amount.

"We're not the same!"

"What?"

"We're not the same," Hermione said spiritedly. "For example, I know that three-headed dogs are very rare animals, and their weakness is falling into a drowsy sleep after hearing music. Not only that, in Greek mythology, to pass the three-headed dog guarding the entrance to the underworld, you also need to use music to make it fall into—oh—damn!"

Just as Hermione was proudly expounding, she suddenly screamed:

"What is this!"

The plant that had originally served to cushion their fall and save them from injury finally showed its true skills.

It seemed to suddenly come alive, extending snake-like tendrils that began wrapping around their ankles.

Hermione trembled all over and screamed loudly:

"Oh God, it's climbing up my legs!"

Hearing Hermione's warning, Harry and Ron immediately began struggling desperately.

However, the more they struggled, the faster and tighter the vines wrapped around them.

Harry could even feel waves of suffocation.

In this situation, Ron instinctively looked to the side.

To his surprise, facing the motionless Sherlock, these vines wrapped around him the slowest. He had a flash of inspiration and immediately called out: "Sherlock! Don't you know the name of this thing? Think of something!"

Sherlock remained calm: "This is Devil's Snare. One of its survival habits is extending tendrils to wrap around any living creature that approaches it—also, the more you struggle, the more excited it gets."

Hearing Sherlock's words, all three were stunned.

But there was clearly no time to think about it now. Ron called out again: "So what should we do?"

"Just don't struggle."

Although it sounded somewhat perverted, out of trust in Sherlock, Harry and Ron immediately relaxed their whole bodies like Sherlock and stopped struggling.

Sure enough, after the Devil's Snare felt them lying motionless, it made one final fierce effort.

Harry almost couldn't hold back.

The next moment, the Devil's Snare seemed to lose interest in them and quickly released them.

However, Hermione's situation was somewhat troublesome.

She had struggled too violently before, and now the Devil's Snare had already crept up her legs, wrapped around her entire body, and bound her in a strange position.

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