"Harry, if you're careful enough, you might be able to recognize this handwriting - yes, that Invisibility Cloak was sent to you by me."
Seeing these two lines, Harry opened his eyes wide and looked down quickly. He wanted to know who gave him such a valuable thing as the Invisibility Cloak as a Christmas gift.
"I know, you might think that invisibility cloaks are only used to do bad things that violate school rules. But it is much more than that. Invisibility cloaks can be used to do many more important things!"
"I received a message not long ago: Quirinus Quirrell, the assistant teacher of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, was bewitched by the Dark Lord and tried to help him steal something that was strictly protected in the castle's restricted area. He already had enough power to break through those guards. Therefore, I hope you can put on the invisibility cloak, be the first to enter the restricted area to get it, and stop Quirrell and the Dark Lord who had ill intentions!"
Harry stared at the letter in his hand. The more he read, the more frightened he became, and his heart began to beat wildly involuntarily.
"Are you still going to play, Harry? If not, you lose!" Ron's voice came from behind.
"There's no time to play chess now!" Harry lost control of his emotions and shouted, "Quirrel may steal the Philosopher's Stone at any time!"
"What? Quirrell, a stutterer, wants to steal the Philosopher's Stone?" Ron put his hand on Harry's forehead. "Harry, are you in a bad mood because you lost the chess game, or are you under too much pressure because of the upcoming final exams? How about we go out and relax?"
"I'm fine! But someone did write to me about this," Harry retorted.
"Ron, Quirrell's stuttering and cowardice are definitely fake!" Hermione suddenly stood up from the pile of books, took the letter from Harry's hand angrily and started reading. "Since he can disguise his perversion and vulgarity as a weak and weak person with kidney deficiency, he can definitely pretend to be cowardly and make the professors look down on him and ignore him!"
Ron and Harry were startled by Hermione's excitement and looked at each other timidly. As a young witch of the new era who was independent and self-reliant, Hermione was extremely disgusted by Quirrell's abnormal behavior and now she decisively believed the wording in the letter.
"But this letter doesn't even have a signature. Could it be a prank?" Ron also came close to Hermione and took a look at the letter. "And why didn't he tell Dumbledore the news directly, but instead sent it to you, a first-year wizard?"
"But if it was a prank, why would he send me such an expensive invisibility cloak?" Harry asked, "Maybe the sender thought that I defeated Voldemort, so he thought I could defeat him again..."
At this point, Harry's mood became depressed. "But he doesn't know that I'm actually just a poor student who can't even pass the first-year final exam..."
"Don't be discouraged, Harry." Hermione comforted, "Anyway, this matter has nothing to do with us. Just give this letter to Dumbledore, and he will naturally deal with the Dark Lord's matter!"
Harry thought about it for a moment, then nodded heavily.
…
After making the decision, the three people encountered another problem -
They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, and they had no idea anyone had ever been taken to see the headmaster.
So Hermione suggested going to see Vice-Principal Professor McGonagall first.
"What are you three doing here?"
Professor McGonagall was in her office at this moment, grading a pile of homework.
Harry and Ron swallowed as they looked at their thick stacks of homework, hoping that Professor McGonagall wouldn't see theirs at this moment.
"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said calmly.
"Want to see Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as if she thought it was very suspicious that they had such an idea. "Why can't you tell me something? Why do you have to go see Dumbledore?"
Harry was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say.
"It's a secret." As soon as he said it, he immediately wished he hadn't said it, because Professor McGonagall was obviously a little angry, her nostrils flaring.
"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said drily. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew to London immediately."
"He's gone?" said Harry anxiously. "At this very moment?"
"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard. He is very busy and his time is precious..." Professor McGonagall was interrupted by Harry before she finished her words.
"But this is very important!" said Harry.
"Do you have anything more important to say than the Ministry of Magic, Harry?" asked Professor McGonagall grimly.
"Well," Harry explained hastily, throwing the word "caution" out of his mind, "Professor, it's about the Philosopher's Stone..."
Professor McGonagall, holding the quill, suddenly paused in her smooth marking movements.
"How do you know about the Philosopher's Stone?" she asked in surprise.
"Professor, someone wrote to Harry and told him that Quirrell tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone. We must let Professor Dumbledore know about this." Hermione wisely took over and said to Professor McGonagall.
She briefly mentioned that Harry and Ron had been connected to Nicolas Flamel via a long-distance call, and motioned for Harry to hand over the letter he was clutching.
Professor McGonagall looked at the three of them with a mixture of astonishment and suspicion, then lowered her head and began to read the letter.
None of the four people present noticed that when the letter was handed to Professor McGonagall, the handwriting suddenly changed a lot, and almost instantly it changed to another font and another content -
The letter omitted any reference to the Invisibility Cloak, and only mentioned Quirrell and the Dark Lord in a few brief sentences.
"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow." Because of the change in the handwriting, Professor McGonagall did not recognize it as Dumbledore's handwriting and did not believe its authenticity. "I don't know how you found out about the Philosopher's Stone, but please rest assured that no one can steal it. It is under strict protection and is absolutely safe."
"But Professor..." Harry wanted to say something else.
"Potter, don't be fooled by the contents of these pranks," she said, turning her eyes back to the homework in front of her. "I know there are a lot of bad rumors about Mr. Quirrell recently. Of course, I don't like what he did, but this is not a reason for us to believe this letter."
Harry and the other two stood there stubbornly, not moving.
Finding that they had no intention of leaving, Professor McGonagall had no choice but to raise her head again and said, "I will tell Dumbledore about this as soon as he comes back, okay?"
The three children saw Professor McGonagall's tone and attitude gradually losing patience, and knew that they could not contact Dumbledore today. So they nodded helplessly and left the vice-principal's office.
"Quirrel might take action today!" Hermione said to Harry and Ron as soon as they left the office, "Otherwise there's no way to explain why Dumbledore left Hogwarts so coincidentally!"
"But Dumbledore isn't here, and Professor McGonagall doesn't believe us. What can we do?" Ron asked.
Harry paused for a moment, then pulled Ron and Hermione and walked in another direction at a faster pace.
"Let's go find Professor Dracula!"
…
…